Microstructure, thickness and sheet resistivity of Cu/Ni thin film produced by electroplating technique on the variation of electrolyte temperature

In this research, it has been made Cu/Ni thin film produced with electroplating technique. The deposition process was done in the plating bath using Cu and Ni as cathode and anode respectively. The electrolyte solution was made from the mixture of HBrO₃ (7.5g), NiSO₄ (100g), NiCl₂ (15g), and aquadest (250 ml). Electrolyte temperature was varied from 40°C up to 80°C, to make the Ni ions in the solution easy to move to Cu cathode. The deposition was done during 2 minutes on the potential of 1.5 volt. Many characterizations were done including the thickness of Ni film, microstructure, and sheet resistivity. The results showed that at all samples Ni had attacked on the Cu substrate to form Cu/Ni. The raising of electrolyte temperature affected the increasing of Ni thickness that is the Ni thickness increase with the increasing electrolyte temperature. From the EDS spectrum, it can be informed that samples already contain Ni and Cu elements and NiO and CuO compounds. Addition element and compound are found for sample Cu/Ni resulted from 70° electrolyte temperature of Ni deposition, that are Pt and PtO₂. From XRD pattern, there are several phases which have crystal structure i.e. Cu, Ni, and NiO, while CuO and PtO₂ have amorphous structure. The sheet resistivity linearly decreases with the increasing electrolyte temperature.