Deposition Time Variation on Thickness and Resistivity of Cu/Ni Thin Film Obtained by Magnetic Field-Assisted Electroplating Process

Abstract

Thin films of Cu/Ni have been synthesized by the electroplating method assisted by a magnetic field on the variation of deposition time. The use of magnetic fields in the deposition process to increases the rate of electroplating and reducing the effect of hydrogen evolution so that the surface morphology of the layers becomes homogeneous. Deposition time affects the thickness of the formed layer. The electroplating is carried out at a DC voltage of 1.5 volts, the magnetic field of 200 gauss, a solution temperature of 60 °C, and an electrode distance of 4 cm with Cu as a cathode and Ni as an anode. The electrolyte solution made from the mixture of H3BO3 (30 g), NiCl2 (195 g), NiSO4 (45 g), and H2O (750 ml) and deposition times varied from 5 s - 45 s with intervals of 10 s. The characterization was done by thickness test using the calculation of the mass, and resistivity of the Ni layer by using the four-point probe. The results indicate that the deposition time is proportional to the thickness of the formed layer and inversely proportional to the resistivity. Ni layer thickness ranges from 1.48 x 10-2 μm to 5.02 × 10-7 μm. while the sheet resistivity is from (4.87 ± 0.02) × 10-3 Ω/sq to (1.38 ± 0.06) x 10-3 Ω/sq.