Effect of electrodeposition parameters on iron-nickel coatings

Iron based alloys find their application at a umber of places. Their applications range from structural materials to transformer cores. An important class of iron alloys is the Iron-Nickel alloys. Iron-Nickel alloy thin films play an important role in the semiconductor industry. They can be deposited in a variety of ways, but a particularly good approach is electrodeposition as it is cheap and scalable. However, composition and residual stress are two major parameters of concern in any ectrodeposition process and are extremely sensitive to experimental conditions. The goal of this research was to understand the effect of individual experimental parameters on the properties of electrodeposited films and the interactions between various parameters. A novel method of dislodging the electrodeposited films was developed and used in order to study the mechanical properties of the electrodeposited film. The method consists of a nondestructive means of dislodging the electrochemical films without affecting their physical or chemical properties. The effect of plating parameters, solution chemistry, and mass transport conditions on composition and residual stress was analyzed. The aforementioned film dislodge technique was utilized in order to isolate electrodeposited films in their native form. Statistical analysis was used in order to find out the interaction between the various experimental variables and their collective impact on the properties of the electrodeposited films.