EAGER: Electrochemical Underpotential Co-deposition of Alloys: A Novel Manufacturing Technology

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EAGER ? Electrochemical underpotential co-deposition of alloys: a novel manufacturing technologyAbstractThis EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) grant provides funding for the development of a novel electrochemical film deposition process for metallic alloys, of potential use in the manufacturing of microelectronic, microsensors and information storage devices. This process exploits the energy of formation of the alloy to induce the deposition of the more reactive element under conditions where deposition of the pure element would otherwise not occur. At low deposition rates, i.e. in the thermodynamic limit, the deposition process will be dominated by the alloy energetics, making it insensitive to the reactor geometry and enhancing uniformity. This work will focus on the synthesis of platinum based binary and ternary alloys with the objective to demonstrate the viability of the process for manufacturing purposes, as well as to produce novel materials for information storage. Manufacturing issues to be explored include composition and thickness uniformity in blanket films and lithographic patterns and limits in the achievable deposition rates. Finally, the possibility to produce ordered structures and alloys including highly reactive elements will be investigated.If successful, this research will validate the proposed deposition method as a viable manufacturing process. In particular, this work will determine the relative importance of thermodynamic predictions and growth rate in controlling alloy composition and uniformity, establishing optimal processing variables to achieve the required material properties in a predetermined device geometry. Additionally, novel materials could be manufactured by electrochemical methods, widening the materials palette available for microfabrication processes. This will lead in turn to innovation in electrodeposition practice, and will pave the way to a variety of novel device designs and functionalities.