HARDNESS AND DUCTILITY OF SPUTTERED GOLD-FILMS

Gold films used in the electronics industry for protection or electrical conduction should be both hard and ductile in order to minimize wear-out. In electrodeposited gold films the required levels of hardness are met at the expense of ductility by incorporating hardening agents which codeposit together with large amounts of foreign atoms. It is shown that pure sputtered gold films can easily match the hardness of hard gold electrodeposits without requiring the incorporation of foreign species (thus remaining comparatively ductile). The hardness of sputtered films is controlled by the temperature of the substrate during deposition. This temperature determines the grain size of the deposit and the relationship between hardness and grain size is shown to follow the Hall-Petch equation. © 1979.