Mitigation of interfacial silicide reactions for electroplated CoPt films on Si substrates

We report in this paper the influence of film thickness on the material and magnetic properties of electroplated CoPt permanent magnets. Layers of CoPt magnets with film thicknesses ranging from 0.5 μm to 5 μm are deposited into photoresist molds (3.5 mm x 3.5 mm square and 5 μm x 50 μm arrays) on a (100)Si substrate coated with 10 nm/100 nm Ti/Cu adhesion/seed layer. Results show an unexpected reduction in magnetic properties for films below 2 μm thick. This effect is determined to be a consequence of metal-silicide reactions at the substrate interface during annealing leading to the formation of a non-magnetic layer at the interface. Subsequently, a TiN diffusion-barrier layer is added to inhibit the silicide reaction and thereby maintain strong magnetic properties (Hci ∼800 kA/m, M r /M s = 0.8) in micron- thick electroplated CoPt layers.