The role of diffusion in limiting the reliability of substrate bonding for bimetallic Cr–Au thin films was investigated using work function, Auger electron spectroscopy, and LEED measurements to characterize the structure and chemical composition of these films. The diffusion rates for Cr into Au films are measured by means of a new technique utilizing the change in electronic work function as a measure of the surface concentration change. It was found that the diffusion coefficient (D) depended on the deposition rate of the Au film, with a twofold increase in deposition rate giving rise to an order of magnitude increase in D. The presence of sulfur as an impurity in the Cr also had a significant effect on D. Comparison of these results with values of D obtained on Cr–Au films by other workers give similar activation energies, but much lower values of D0 (temperature independent part of D) were obtained in this work. The effect on the lifetimes of devices using thin bimetallic films is discussed in terms of structure, variation in deposition rate, and the influence of contaminants.

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© 1972 The American Institute of Physics.
1972
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