Printing of Microscale Nanotwinned Copper Interconnections Using Localized Pulsed Electrodeposition (L-PED)

Nanotwinned (nt) metals exhibit superior electrical and mechanical properties compared to their coarse-grained and nano-grained counterparts. They have a unique microstructure with grains that contain layered nanoscale twins divided by coherent twin boundaries (TBs). Since nanotwinned metals have low electrical resistivity and high resistance to electromigration, they are ideal materials for making nanowires, interconnections and switches. In this paper we show the possibility of making nanotwinned copper interconnections on a non-conductive substrate using a novel additive manufacturing technique called L-PED. Through this approach, microscale interconnections can be directly printed on the substrate in environmental conditions and without post processing.