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research article

Liquid electromigration in gallium-based biphasic thin films

Michaud, Hadrien O.  
•
Lacour, Stephanie P.  
March 1, 2019
Apl Materials

Liquid metals have recently gained interest as a material of choice for soft and stretchable electronic circuits, thanks to their virtually infinite mechanical failure strain and high electrical conductivity. Gallium-based thin films are obtained by depositing gallium in the vapor phase to form a class of liquid metal conductors. The films, with an average thickness below 1 mu m, withstand mechanical strain in excess of 400%. However, modes of failure other than mechanical ones have not yet been thoroughly investigated. In particular, electromigration, a well-known cause of failure in solid thin film traces for integrated circuits, also occurs in bulk liquid metals. In this work, microscopic observation of the thin conductive traces reveals that gallium is displaced from the anode terminal toward the cathode terminal after direct current stressing. This results in a catastrophic increase in the trace resistance and electrical failure. The mean time to failure decreases with increasing current density, following Black's equation, an empirical mathematical model originally developed to describe failure in solid metal thin-film tracks due to electromigration. We show that using alternating current, e.g., symmetric square wave, rather than direct current can extend the lifetime of the thin liquid metal film conductor by several orders of magnitude. These results may help stretchable circuit designers who select liquid metal thin-film conductors as the stretchable interconnect technology to predict devices' lifetime and implement mitigation strategies at the system level or at the material level. (C) 2019 Author(s).

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1063/1.5059380
Web of Science ID

WOS:000462880800029

Author(s)
Michaud, Hadrien O.  
Lacour, Stephanie P.  
Date Issued

2019-03-01

Published in
Apl Materials
Volume

7

Issue

3

Article Number

031504

Subjects

Nanoscience & Nanotechnology

•

Materials Science, Multidisciplinary

•

Physics, Applied

•

Science & Technology - Other Topics

•

Materials Science

•

Physics

•

failure

Note

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
LSBI  
Available on Infoscience
June 18, 2019
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/156841
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