| dc.description.abstract | With the advancement of 3C products and Industry 4.0, the connector industry has also been growing. More and more research is focusing on improving the performance of connectors at a lower cost now. Traditionally, terminals connector enhance their bonding with the outer layer by first coating with a layer of pure nickel as a base, followed by a layer of pure gold. However, since the prices of nickel and gold are very high, the overall cost continually increases. As a result, domestic and international connector manufacturers are turning to the development and research of alternative coating materials to replace the nickel and gold parts. In commercial, terminals connector must possess characteristics such as impact resistance, durability under repeated insertion and removal, low electrical resistance, high-temperature resistance and moisture resistance. Consequently, improving the mechanical, electrical, and environmental properties of terminals connector are the core topics.
This study try to develop the aluminum-silver-copper (Al-Ag-Cu) amorphous alloys and use this amorphous alloys to fabricate a thin film to replace the expensive pure gold and pure nickel films. In this study the alloy is coated onto glass substrates to form an amorphous structure film by using DC magnetron sputtering, and then investigate the mechanical properties, electrical conductivity, and corrosion resistance of these thin film.
Compared with conventional crystalline structures, amorphous structure possess higher hardness and wear resistance. Additionally, due to the absence of grain boundaries, they exhibit extremely strong oxidation resistance and corrosion resistance. When applied to thin films, these properties can effectively address existing issues.
The results show that the aluminum-silver-copper (Al-Ag-Cu) based alloy can be successfully deposited onto glass substrates using DC magnetron sputtering. XRD results show that after the deposition the Al-Ag-Cu based alloy retains its amorphous structure.
Rapid thermal annealing at 400℃was performed after deposition, and the resistivity of thin film were measured. The resistivity of the Al46Ag35Cu19 amorphous film reduces to as low as 98 μΩ∙cm, while the Al70Ag15Cu15 composite structure reduces to 39 μΩ∙cm. Compared with pure copper at 42 μΩ∙cm and pure nickel at 141 μΩ∙cm, these results show a promising trend. Through nano-indentation analysis, it was found that the Al52Ag31Cu17 amorphous film achieved a maximum hardness of 6.11 GPa and a Young′s modulus of 111.83 GPa. Meanwhile, the Al65Ag15Cu20 composite structure reached a hardness of 3.75 GPa and a Young′s modulus of 95.37 GPa.
The hardness of the amorphous film is four times higher than that of pure gold film. This study demonstrates the feasibility of this approach, showing that AlAgCu metal thin films have great potential. | en_US |