Thin Films are thin material layers having ranges from several A to several um in thickness. Semiconductor, optical coating, ferromagnetic layer in magnetic recording device are some of the main applications using thin film technologies.
Besides, protective coating that made of metal or ceramic are also in wide use. Take for an example, the high hardness and inertness of ceramic make this a very good protective layer to protect the substrate against corrosion, oxidation and wearing. Applying such coating on tools (e.g. Cutting tools) may help extend the life time and save money.
The engineering of thin films is complicated by the fact that their physics is in some cases not well understood. For example, the wetting ability, adhesion, corrosion resistance after adding the coating, or the material and thickness effect on the thin film properties. These areas are important to get understand? before producing a reliable products.
Depending on what properties that the customers would like to get more understandings on their thin film/ coating, ASMAC could able to preform the tests through using suitable surface sensitive instruments and mechanical properties testing machines as below.

Properties:

  1. Composition
  2. Surface roughness and morphology
  3. Thickness measurement
  4. Grain size
  5. Crystal orientation
  6. Hardness
  7. Adhesion
  8. Wetting ability
  9. Wetting angle

Instruments:

  1. SEM (scanning electron microscope)/ EDS (Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy)
  2. Atomic Force Microscope (AFM)
  3. XRD
  4. XRF
  5. XPS (X-ray Photo-electron Spectroscopy )
  6. AES (Auger Electron Spectroscopy)
  7. FT-IR(Micro Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy)
  8. TOF-SIMS
  9. Wetting balance
  10. Wetting angle test machine
  11. Micro-hardness test machine

Examples

A. Au plating analysis on ENIG pad
Analysis Technique: AES sputter depth profiling


Figure 18 AES sputter depth profile of the ENIG film on PWB showing the Au film with thickness of 350Å

B. Plating thickness measurement
Analysis Technique: Cross-sectioning + SEM or Optical Microscope

Figure 19 SEM image of the Pt layer (with thickness of 1.06 µm) on a cross-sectioned watch


Figure 20 Optical image of the multilayer Ni of a cross-sectioned Al wheel after proper chemical etching.

C. Grain Size Comparison
Analysis Technique: SEM


Figure 21 SEM image of the Sn plating with average grain size of 3.4 µm


Figure 22 SEM image of the Sn plating with average grain size of 4.5 µm

D. Solderability of IAg pads on PWB
Analysis Technique: Wetting Balance


Figure 23 Good solderability curve for IAg pad


Figure 24 Poor solderability curve for IAg pad
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  ASMAC can now offer Scanning Acoustic Microscopy (SAM) service. SAM is an idea technique to study subsurface defects and crack propagation in materials.

ASMAC can provide electropolishing and chemical polishing service for metal finishing and metallurgy preparation purposes, including process development and refining for high quality products.