Comparison of Electrical Properties of NiCr Thin Film Deposited On Different Substrates

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Surface & Coatings Technology 235 (2013) 552–560

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Surface & Coatings Technology


journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/surfcoat

Comparison of microstructure and electrical properties of NiCr alloy thin


film deposited on different substrates
Lifei Lai a,b,c, Xianzhu Fu a, Rong Sun a,⁎, Ruxu Du d
a
Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, PR China
b
Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, PR China
c
Ningbo University of Technology, Ningbo 315016, PR China
d
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: NiCr (80/20 at.%) alloy thin film was deposited on the copper foil, glass and silicon substrates by DC magnetron
Received 8 May 2013 sputtering method, respectively. The structure, stress and resistivity of NiCr thin films were affected by the
Accepted in revised form 15 August 2013 different substrates. The preferred orientations of NiCr thin film were Ni (011) and Cr (011) on the copper
Available online 23 August 2013
foil substrate with rough surface, while only Ni (111) on the glass and silicon substrates. And the internal
stress of NiCr thin film was tensile stress on the copper foil, while compressive stress on the glass and silicon
Keywords:
NiCr alloy thin film
substrates. These differences then resulted in larger resistivity of NiCr thin film deposited on copper foil
Different substrates than glass or silicon substrate. However, the temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) of NiCr thin film
Microstructure was slightly influenced by the different substrates.
Electrical properties © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction foil has a large tensile strength, the thin film resistor materials can be
sputtered onto rolls of copper foil in the industrialized production in
Today, several million parts of passive devices including resistors, order to improve efficiency. Ruckh et al. demonstrated that the substrate
capacitors and inductors have been used in many electronic devices materials influenced the electrical properties of Cu (In, Ga) Se2 thin film
such as computers, cell phones, etc. Conventional discrete passive [11]. Ma et al. investigated the different microstructures and electrical
components are not well to meet the miniaturization and high properties of SnO2: Sb films deposited on polyimide and glass substrates
performance of electronic products. If the passive devices are fabricated [12]. Groner et al. showed that differences in the electrical properties of
as thin film and embedded in the printed circuit board (PCB), they can Al2O3 ALD films grown on the substrates were attributed to differences
not only reduce much surface space, electromagnetic interference and in substrate reactivity, substrate roughness, and interfacial oxide layers
the cost of installation, but also improve the performance and signal [13]. However, few studies have been reported about comparison of
quality by reducing the wiring distance and the number of solder joints the microstructure and electrical properties of NiCr alloy films deposited
[1,2]. Embedded thin film resistor (ETFR), one of the passive compo- on different substrates.
nents (PCS), can be made by pressing thin film resistor into PCB [3]. It Herein, NiCr alloy thin films as ETFR materials were deposited by DC
plays an important role in the current limitation, voltage regulator magnetron sputtering on the copper foil, glass and silicon substrates.
and the terminal impedance control circuit of high-frequency, etc. Their microstructure, stress and electrical properties were also investi-
NiCr (80/20 at. %) alloy is usually chosen as one of the ETFR materials gated and compared.
due to its high reliability, small temperature coefficient of resistance
(TCR) and high electrical resistivity [4,5]. The most common method 2. Experimental
is DC magnetron sputtering for fabrication of NiCr alloy film [6]. Glass,
silicon and copper foil, can be used as the substrates. NiCr alloy deposited 2.1. Materials and methods
on glass or silicon for high uniformity and reproducibility of resistance
has been widely used as sensor or chip resistor for common integrated NiCr (80/20 at. %) alloy (99.99% purity) was used as target for
circuit, but the resistivity of NiCr thin film is not high enough, they are sputtering. High purity Ar (99.999% purity) was introduced as the
only suitable for small resistor circuits [7–10]. Thin film deposited on sputtering gases. Very low profile (VLP) electrolytic copper foil
copper foil has a special function as both multilayer core boards and (70 × 75 × 0.018 mm, Taiwan Changchun Petrochemical), float glass
electrode in 3D electronics packaging technology. In addition, copper (25 × 75 × 1 mm, Jiangsu Shitai Experimental equipment Co., LTD.)
and silicon (25 × 65 × 0.5 mm, Zhejiang Kaihua Lijing silicon material
⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 755 86392158; fax: +86 755 86392299. Co., LTD.) were selected as substrate. The optimized deposition condition
E-mail address: [email protected] (R. Sun). was used, i.e. a sputter power of 405 W, an argon pressure of 0.85 Pa, a

0257-8972/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.surfcoat.2013.08.023
L. Lai et al. / Surface & Coatings Technology 235 (2013) 552–560 553

substrate temperature of 100 °C, a gas flow of 80 sccm, a base pressure of higher surface root-mean-square roughness values (Rq) (Rq = 408 nm,
chamber of 8.5 × 10−4 Pa, a rotation speed of 20 rpm and a distance of 295 nm before and after annealing, respectively) as compared with the
70 mm between the target and the copper, the sputtered time was set at film deposited on the glass substrate (Fig. 1 c, d) (Rq = 4.77 nm,
4 min [14]. To achieve good adhesion and large sheet resistance, the NiCr 3.0 nm before and after annealing, respectively). The roughness of the
thin films were deposited on the matte side of copper foil. Before thin films was reduced, and the particle size became uniform after
sputtering, copper foil, float glass and silicon substrates were ultrasoni- annealing. The scanning area of thin film was selected 1 μm × 1 μm on
cally cleaned in sequence by acetone, alcohol and deionized water, glass and silicon for ease of observation. It can be seen in Fig. 2 that the
with 10 min for each step. Then the clean copper foil, float glass surface morphology of both was similar before and after annealing, the
and silicon were transferred into the sputtering chamber after Rq of thin film on glass was decreased from 1.65 nm to 1.60 nm (Fig. 2
completely flowing dry by nitrogen gun and were fixed on turntable a, b), the Rq of thin film on silicon was reduced from 1.85 nm to
of quartz by high temperature tape. Before deposition, the alloy target 1.80 nm (Fig. 2 c, d). Obviously, the Rq of thin film deposited on copper
was pre-sputtered for about 10 min to remove impurities and contam- foil was hundreds of times bigger than those of thin films deposited on
inants on the surface. Some deposited thin films were placed directly on glass and silicon. It might be mainly due to the initial roughness of the
the silicon pad in RTP500 (Rapid Thermal Processor, Beijing Institute of substrate itself. Roughness values for these substrates before deposition
Applied Physics, China), and were annealed in N2 for 540 s at 250 °C were: Rcopper = 595 nm, Rglass = 1.25 nm, and Rsilicon = 1.37 nm. The
and 350 °C, respectively. roughness of the thin film can affect the resistivity; the larger roughness
In order to analyze the thermal stability of ETFR, the sheet resistance would lead to the higher resistivity [15,16]. According to the resistance
of NiCr ETFR was measured using a digital source meter (Keithley 2410) generation mechanism, the metal resistance is caused by the free-
at different temperature which was controlled by the detection probing electron collision. Electron colliding on the rough surface of thin film
station (HFSE-PB4). The film thickness was determined by a calibrated can reduce the mean free path of conduction electrons and lead to the
surface profiler (Model XP-1). The thickness of NiCr alloy on copper smaller electrical conductivity and the larger resistivity [17].
foil was determined by the alloy thickness on top of the float glass SEM images of the deposited NiCr thin films before and after
since the thickness of the thin film on copper foil is inconvenient to be annealing are shown in Figs. 3 and 4. SEM images of NiCr thin films
accurately measured for the soft and rough of copper foil substrate [5]. on the copper foil in Figs. 3 (a) and 4 (a) present large particles and
The surface morphology of ETFR materials was examined by AFM great voids. The surface morphology of thin film on the copper foil
(NanoScope IIIa) and SEM (Hitachi S-4800). The surface chemical as like as flowers was completely different from those on the glass
state of ETFR material was investigated by XPS (ULVAC-PHI 1800) and silicon substrates. The copper foil was a conductive substrate,
using a 1486.6 eV Al kα source, all binding energy values were compen- and the surface of copper foil was rough, thus the deposited thin
sated to C1s (284.5 eV), the sputter rate is 8.0 nm min−1 for depth film particles on copper foil would preferentially grow along the
profiling by SiO2 as the scale of standard sample and argon gas as the bumps of rough surface. The particles of thin film deposited on
sputtering gas. The elemental concentrations of ETFR materials were glass and silicon substrates before and after annealing are very
detected by EDS (EMAX250). The internal stress and microstructure of smaller than those deposited on copper foil (Figs. 3 (b), (c) and 4
ETFR were analyzed by XRD (X'pert PRO, NL) using a small angle X- (b), (c)). In addition, the thin film particles (Fig. 4) on the different
ray scattering model. substrates after annealing were obviously larger than that before
annealing (Fig. 3), the voids in the film were also reduced, particularly
2.2. The calculation of relevant parameters the thin film particles on the copper foil substrate.

Resistivity (ρ) is calculated from ρ = Rs × d, where Rs is the sheet 3.2. Composition


ðRt −Rt Þ
resistance and d the film thickness. The TCR is defined as TCR ¼ Rt ðt−t00 Þ
0 XPS analysis was performed to identify the surface component of
106 ðppm=KÞ, where Rt 0 and Rt are the sheet resistance of ETFR mea- NiCr thin film on different substrates for as-deposited state and after
sured at the temperature of t0 (room temperature) and t, respectively. annealing at 350 °C. The narrow scan spectra of Ni2p3/2 for as-
The crystallite dimension was estimated by the Debye–Scherrer deposited state are shown in Fig. 5. Ni metal as the predominant Ni
formula (1). The stress vertical film surface is calculated by formula state was detected at binding energies of 852.81 eV and 852.71 eV.
(2). A small amounts of NiO (854 eV) and Ni2O3 (856 eV) were also detected
in fitted Gaussian peaks. Cr 2P3/2 XPS curves are shown in Figs. 6 and 7.
kλkα1 Large Cr-oxides peaks were overlapped, the binding energy of Cr2p3/2
Lhkl ¼ ð1Þ
β1 cosθ signals at about 575.96, and 577.1 eV was attributed to Cr2+, and Cr3+
species, respectively, and some Cr metal (574.29 eV) was found on the
E f d0 −d surface of as-deposited NiCr thin film on different substrates (Fig. 6). It
σ¼ ð2Þ
2ν f d0 0 was almost Cr2O3 on the surface of thin film after annealing at 350 °C
(Fig. 7). The XPS area ratios of the chemical states of Ni species and Cr
where Lhkl is the crystallite size, K is the correction factor (0.89), λkα1 species for NiCr ETFR materials deposited on different substrates before
is the X-ray wavelength (0.15406 nm), β1 is the FWHM value, θ is the and after annealing are presented in Tables 1 and 2, respectively. It was
Bragg diffraction angle. σ is the stress, d0 and d are the interplanar found that the Ni-oxides and Cr-oxides contents of thin film deposited
distance with or without stress, respectively. Ef is Young's modulus on copper foil were higher than that on the other substrates in as-
and νf is Poisson's ratio. deposited state. It might be resulted from the higher oxygen absorption
for bigger voids of NiCr thin film on copper foil. Moreover, the roughened
3. Results and discussion copper foil might also have good oxygen absorbing capacity, the thin
film deposited on copper was loose and copper foil had a good thermal
3.1. Surface morphology conductivity, so the oxygen on the surface of copper foil might penetrate
rapidly into thin metal films and reach the surface of thin film. These
Fig. 1 presents the three-dimensional AFM images of NiCr thin film oxides would increase the resistivity of NiCr thin film [18].
deposited on the copper foil and glass substrates in a scanning area of Fig. 8 shows the full XPS spectra of the NiCr films deposited on
10 μm × 10 μm before and after annealing at 350 °C, respectively. The different substrates before and after annealing. Ni element was
film deposited on the copper foil (Fig. 1 a, b) were characterized by a observed on the surface of as-deposited thin film, but was not detected
554 L. Lai et al. / Surface & Coatings Technology 235 (2013) 552–560

Fig. 1. AFM 3D images of NiCr thin film deposited on different substrates before and after annealing (10 μm × 10 μm): (a) (b) Copper foil; (c) (d) Glass.

Fig. 2. AFM 3D images of NiCr thin film deposited on different substrates before and after annealing (1 μm × 1 μm): (a) (b) Glass; (c) (d) Silicon.
L. Lai et al. / Surface & Coatings Technology 235 (2013) 552–560 555

Fig. 4. SEM surface images of NiCr thin film annealed at 350 °C on different substrates:
(a) Copper foil; (b) Glass; (c) Silicon.

after annealing at 350 °C. However, the Cr content on the surface


Fig. 3. SEM surface images of NiCr thin film as-deposited states on different substrates:
increased after annealing. Because the chromium metal was more easily
(a) Copper foil; (b) Glass; (c) Silicon.
oxidized than the Ni metal, the Cr atoms dissolved in the nickel lattice
were separated out and moved toward the surface of the film at the
high annealing temperature [19]. Cu element in copper foil substrate
556 L. Lai et al. / Surface & Coatings Technology 235 (2013) 552–560

was found on the surface of thin film after annealing at 350 °C, but the
elements in glass and silicon substrates were not found on the thin
film surface. Table 3 shows the atomic ratio of element of NiCr thin
films deposited on copper foil before and after annealed at 350 °C.
There is no Cu element as-deposited state, while the atomic ratios of
Cu were 14.5 at. % on the surface after annealed at 350 °C. Since the
diffusion of Cu was great as the temperature increases, and the thin
film on copper foil was loose and had more defects, the distortion
generated by defects also would enhance the rate of atomic diffusion
[20]. Thus the Cu atoms were easy to move in the voids of NiCr film.
The segregation of Cr element was also reflected obviously in Table 3,
when thin film was annealed at 350 °C. The diffusion and segregation of
the metal atoms in the thin film can affect the resistivity, which had a
greater impact on them than that of crystal defects [21].
Table 4 shows the EDS analysis of the NiCr thin film on different sub-
strates before and after annealing. It can be found that the concentration

Fig. 6. XPS spectra of Cr obtained from NiCr thin film surface as-deposited states on different
substrates: (a) Copper foil; (b) Glass; (c) Silicon.

ratio of Cr and Ni in thin film was close to 20/80 at. %, and was almost
the same with the target. The elements of substrates about glass, silicon
and copper were also detected because the thicknesses of NiCr thin
films were below 200 nm (Table 6). The concentration of oxygen
increased obviously after annealing, which proved the XPS analysis of
NiCr thin films oxidized after annealing. In addition, the C element
appeared in the thin film deposited on glass and copper foil after
annealing since the surface of thin film was contaminated in the EDS
measurement.

3.3. Structure and stress

Fig. 9 shows the XRD curves of NiCr thin film deposited on copper
foil (the copper foil substrate had been etched away), float glass
Fig. 5. XPS spectra of Ni obtained from NiCr thin film surface as-deposited states on different and silicon under the same conditions before and after annealing at
substrates: (a) Copper foil; (b) Glass; (c) Silicon. 350 °C in N2. When NiCr alloy was deposited on glass and silicon
L. Lai et al. / Surface & Coatings Technology 235 (2013) 552–560 557

Table 2
XPS area ratios of chemical states of Cr species for NiCr alloy deposited on different
substrates before and after annealing.

XPS area ratio (%) XPS area ratio (%)


(As-deposited state) (Annealing at 350 °C)

BE (eV) Copper Glass Silicon Copper Glass Silicon

Cr 574.29 25.40 29.69 30.65 0 0 0


Cr2+ 575.96 42.05 14.81 18.99 10.63 19.57 8.75
Cr3+ 577.10 32.55 55.50 50.36 89.37 80.43 91.25

Fig. 7. XPS spectra of Cr obtained from NiCr thin film surface annealed at 350 °C on different
substrates: (a) Copper foil; (b) Glass; (c) Silicon.

before annealing treatment, only a face-centered structure of the Ni


(111) diffraction peak was found according to the XRD results.
Whereas the hexagonal Ni (011) and Ni (103) peaks, face-centered
structure Cr (110) and Cr (200) peaks were observed in NiCr alloy
film on copper foil, Ni (011) peak and Cr (110) peak were almost
coincident, the main strong peaks should be both combined peaks,

Table 1
XPS area ratios of chemical states of Ni species for NiCr alloy deposited on different
substrates in as-deposited state.

BE (eV) XPS area ratio (%)

Coppera Glass Silicon


a
Ni 852.71(852.81 ) 57.07 75.10 76.33
Ni2+ 854.00 19.23 14.57 18.58
Fig. 8. XPS full spectra of the NiCr film surface on different substrates before and after
Ni3+ 856.00 23.70 10.33 5.09
annealing: (a) Copper foil; (b) Glass; (c) Silicon.
558 L. Lai et al. / Surface & Coatings Technology 235 (2013) 552–560

Table 3 In addition, the rough surface of copper foil was easy to cause the lattice
Surface concentrations of NiCr thin film before and after 75 s of sputtering. mismatch between the deposited film and substrate. The higher thermal
Concentration (at. %) As-deposited state Annealed at 350 °C conductivity of copper foil also would affect on the initial growth behavior
of the deposited thin film. These reasons led that the thin film's structure
Before After Before After
was loose, density was low, and the film along surface had shrink trend, so
O1s 44.8 9.4 48.4 37.0
the thin film on copper foil exhibited the tensile stress. While the thin film
Ni2P3/2 24.4 74.6 0 32.5
Cr2P3/2 8.4 16.0 13.2 25.4 deposited on the glass and silicon substrates was dense and the film along
Cu2P3/2 0 0 14.5 4.2 surface had expansion trend, so the compressive stresses were presented
C1s 22.4 0 23.9 1.0 (Table 5). The large internal stress can make more strain energy clustered,
then result in the larger grain deformation and grain boundaries
distortion. As the scattering effect of electronic caused by the grain
while Ni (111) peak did not appear. The XRD pattern was dominated boundary becomes significant, the resistivity of the thin film increases
by Ni (011) and Cr (110). Ni (103) peaks disappeared whereas the Ni [28,29]. The grain size can also affect the resistivity of the thin film,
(002) peak appeared after annealing in N2 at 350 °C. The Ni (011) large grain owning small grain boundary will cause the scattering of
and Cr (110) peaks were still dominant. The XRD pattern in Fig. 10 electrons on the grain boundary weak, resulting in lower resistivity
shows that glass substrate is completely amorphous because of no [30–32]. The stress of the thin film on copper foil was smaller, however,
diffraction peaks, but the weak Si (111) peak and high intensity Cu its grain was the biggest, theoretically, the resistivity should be smaller,
(111), (200) and (220) peaks were observed for the silicon and copper but the experimental results showed that the resistivity of the thin film
substrates, respectively. The different crystal structure of substrates can on copper foil was larger than those of thin films on the other substrates
impact the microstructures and properties of the deposited thin film (Table 6). The reason might be that the structure of thin film on the
[7,22], which led to the different intrinsic stress of thin film on glass, copper was loose and the density was low (Fig. 3), so the deposited
silicon and copper foil (Table 4). In addition, the rough surface of copper particles of thin film had more surface area to hinder the conduction
foil may cause the lattice mismatch between the deposited film and the of electrons and increased the electron scattering effect, leading to
substrate, then resulting in the interfacial stress. The Ni (011) had high resistivity [33]. In addition, the NiCr thin films deposited on
minimum surface energy or strain energy, leading to a preferred the copper foil were easy to be oxidized, which also caused the resistivity
orientation and the nickel crystals into hexagonal structure from of thin film to increase [18].
the usual face-centered structure [23]. The intensity of NiCr diffraction
peaks on copper foil was the greatest among the samples on the different 3.4. Electrical properties
substrates, indicating that the thin film on copper foil had the best
crystallinity. The XRD results suggested that there was no NiCr inter- Table 6 presents the thickness, sheet resistance and resistivity of
metallic compound in the thin film. According to the NiCr alloy phase NiCr thin film deposited on the different substrates. The resistivity of
diagram, there is mainly a Ni single phase solid solution, most of the the thin film on the glass and silicon substrates was similar with the
Cr element dissolves in the Ni crystal lattice as a metallic element, temperature increasing, and the average resistivity of thin film on the
and only a small amount of single phase of chromium exist as the copper foil was more than three times larger than those on the glass
Cr concentration is 20 at. %, the temperature lower than 1200 °C and silicon substrates. The conductivity of a metal, according to
[8]. Diffraction peaks of Cr metal did not appear in the NiCr thin Boltzmann transport theory, is given by (3) [34]:
film deposited on glass and silicon, which might be due to its poor
2
crystallinity. e
σ¼ τ ðε F ÞvS ð3Þ
The crystal grain sizes of NiCr thin film on copper foil were much 12π3 ℏ
larger than those for the other two substrates (Table 5). The stress of
NiCr thin film deposited on copper foil was tensile stress and on the where τ is the average scattering time, εF is the Fermi energy, v is the
other two substrates was compressive stress [24–26]. The stress generally average velocity at the Fermi surface, and S is the k-space area of the
originates from structural defects (e.g., impurities, vacancies, grain Fermi surface. Loose grain boundaries and a rough surface will result
boundaries, dislocations, etc.) in the thin film growth process, the surface in large probability of electron scattering and shorten the average
energy state, the lattice mismatch between the film and substrate, and scattering time τ, then conductivity (σ) reduces and the resistivity
the different thermal expansion coefficients of the deposited thin film of the material increases, so the resistivity of thin film on the copper
and substrate [27]. When the NiCr target was bombarded by high energy foil was bigger than that on the glass and silicon substrates. The
Ar plasma, Ni and Cr atoms sputtered with great kinetic energy. They resistivity of the NiCr film on the different substrates decreased
would lose more energy, when collided on the flexible copper foil with the annealing temperature increasing. Because the defects
substrate than the hard substrates of glass and silicon. Thus the (such as dislocations, vacancies, etc.) and the grain boundaries in
moment transfer of sputtered atoms to the films growing on the the thin film were reduced with the increase of grain size, the electron
substrate was smaller on copper foil than on the glass and silicon. scattering effect was weakened and the resistivity became smaller

Table 4
Elements concentrations analyzed by EDS in NiCr ETFR materials deposited on different substrates.

Glass Silicon Copper

As- deposited Annealed at 350 °C As- deposited Annealed at 350 °C As-deposited Annealed at 350 °C

Ni(at.%) 18.58 11.95 14.06 13.41 25.86 15.40


Cr(at.%) 4.76 3.09 3.74 3.72 6.87 4.17
O(at.%) 40.23 46.63 0 5.36 0 7.40
Cu(at.%) 0 0 0 0 67.27 62.02
Si 29.13 20.98 82.20 77.51 0 0
C 0 10.01 0 0 0 11.01
Na 3.47 3.49 0 0 0 0
Ca 3.83 3.85 0 0 0 0
Cr:Ni(%) 25.6 25.9 26.6 27.7 26.6 27.1
L. Lai et al. / Surface & Coatings Technology 235 (2013) 552–560 559

Table 6
Sheet resistance and resistivity of NiCr thin film in different conditions.

Conditions Substrates Thickness Sheet Resistance Resistivity


(nm) (Ω/sq) (×10−4 Ω cm)

As-deposited glass 143 8.95 1.280


silicon 140 9.09 1.273
copper 143 46.77 6.688
Annealed glass 141 8.83 1.245
250 °C silicon 139 9.01 1.252
copper 141 41.86 5.902
Annealed glass 88 8.54 0.751
350 °C silicon 86 8.61 0.740
copper 88 32.45 2.855

[35,36]. Although the oxidization of thin film can improve the resistivity,
its influence was weak. The decrease of resistivity of thin film on copper
foil was fastest compared to those of thin films on glass and silicon,
which mainly resulted from the diffusion of Cu in the thin film and
the improvement for loose structure of thin film in the annealing
process.
Fig. 11 presents the temperature dependence of the TCR of NiCr thin
film deposited on different substrates before and after annealing. The
trend of the three TCR curves was almost the same. The TCR of as-
deposited thin film in Fig. 11 (a) was large fluctuations in the range of
10 °C–70 °C, suggesting that the resistances of NiCr thin film had large
change in this temperature range. The TCR of thin film on copper foil
was the first stable among the TCR curves. It might be due to the

Fig. 9. XRD patterns of NiCr ETFR deposited on different substrates: (a) As-deposited
states; (b) Annealed at 350 °C.

Fig. 10. XRD patterns of different substrates.

Table 5
The XRD analysis of the NiCr ETFR deposited on different substrates (Ni (1 1 1) and Ni
(0 1 1) peak).

No. hkl d 2θ Δd FWHM Crystallite Stress


(×10−1 nm) (°) (nm) (°) sizes (nm) (MPa)

Silicon 111 2.0363 44.454 −0.0023 0.968 8.8 −386.7


Glass 111 2.0369 44.456 −0.0096 0.995 8.5 −487.5
Fig. 11. The temperature dependence of the TCR of NiCr thin film on different substrates:
Copper 011 2.0319 44.556 0.0015 0.305 27.8 252.2
(a) As-deposited states; (b) Annealed at 350 °C.
560 L. Lai et al. / Surface & Coatings Technology 235 (2013) 552–560

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