Oxidation-driven grain evolution on bare-copper AMB substrate during annealing

Bare copper surface of AMB and DBC substrates are inevitably exposed to oxygen environment during manufacturing, storage, and thermal processing steps of power module packaging. In realistic processing, surface oxidation and grain evolution occur simultaneously and interact through coupled thermodynamic and kinetic mechanisms. And the coupled effect remains poorly understood. The overall objective of this research is to establish a mechanism-based understanding of how surface oxidation couples with annealing to regulate copper surface grain evolution.  And you are expected to characterize the surface of AMB substrates under SEM/EBSD to obtain the coupling mechanism. 

Assignment

The expected activities to be carried out by the students are:

• Literature review about the copper grain evolution and substrates.
• In-situ SEM characterization and vacuum annealing
• EBSD Characterization of vacuum-annealed and oxidized samples.
• Data analysis based EBSD characterization and coupling mechanism exploring.

The student will perform the assignment at ECTM:

• Duration: ~ 6-9 months.

Requirements

You are an ambitious student looking for a challenging thesis project on material characterization and power electronics packaging. You have a physics, materials or microelectronics background and an interest in key processing steps of power electronics packaging and reliability. Good communication skills in English and the interest in experimental and theoretical research are expected.

Contact

Last modified: 2026-02-02