Jae-Won Jang

Department of Mechanical Engineering,

Korea Advanced Institute of
Science and Technology,
291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu,
Daejeon 305-701, South Korea
Yun Hwangbo1
e-mail: ofs@kimm.re.kr
Jae-Hyun Kim
Hak-Joo Lee
Alexander E. Mag-isa
Department of Nano Convergence
Mechanical Systems Research Division,
Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials,
104, Sinseongno, Yuseong-gu,
Daejeon 305-343, South Korea
Soon-Bok Lee
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Korea Advanced Institute of
Science and Technology,
291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu,
Daejeon 305-701, South Korea
Statistical Characteristics
of Fatigue Failure of Copper
Thin Films
Tension–tension fatigue tests were conducted on an electrodeposited copper film with a
thickness of 12 lm under four levels of maximum stress and two levels of mean stress.
Statistical characteristics of the measured fatigue lives were analyzed using three estima-
tion methods for cumulative distribution function and five probability distributions in
order to identify the dominant probability distribution for the fatigue life of copper film.
It was found that while the 3-parameter Weibull distribution provided the best fit for the
measured data in most cases, the other distributions also provide a similar coefficient of
correlation for the fit. The absence of the dominant probability distribution was discussed
with considerations of the deformation mode and the scanning electron microscope
(SEM) measurements of fatigue-fractured surfaces. Based on the statistical analysis, the
probabilistic stress-life (PSN) curves were obtained for statistical prediction of fatigue
life of the copper film in the intermediate life regime. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4025319]
Keywords: electrodeposited copper film, fatigue test, probability distribution, statistical
analysis

Introduction investigated the high-cycle fatigue properties of copper thin film

using the copper sample designed for precision alignment and
Copper films are extensively utilized as electrical conductors
accurate load measurement fabricated by lithography. Huh et al.
on printed circuit board in modern electronic products such as
[5] also studied the similar topic using in-plane electronic speckle
cell-phones, televisions, digital cameras and personal computers.
pattern interferometric system for noncontact strain measurement
During the lifetime of the electronic products, the copper films
during tests. They analyzed the fatigue data also considering the
usually experience cyclic strain or stress caused by thermal expan-
stress-life and reported the fatigue failure modes of copper thin
sion and/or repetitive motions of the users. The cyclic strain or
films such as cyclic creep behavior [4] and transgranular fracture
stress could lead to unexpected fatigue failure of the copper films
mode [5]. Meanwhile, Bossuyt et al. [6] performed the strain con-
even under low stress level, so the electronic products utilizing
trolled fatigue tests on the stretchable printed circuit boards devel-
them could not perform the intended function anymore. This
oped by three different technologies (two based on patterning of
fatigue failure should be taken into account at the design stage of
copper-foil and one on screen-printed Ag-conductors). From this,
the electronic products. In order to design highly reliable elec-
they concluded that the copper foil that utilized these technologies
tronic devices, the evaluation of the lifetime of the copper film
showed a fatigue-like failure behavior depending on the strain
under fatigue is an essential and important elementary step.
range, and could be well described in terms of the Manson–Coffin
For fatigue properties of copper thin films, a considerable num-
relation which is normally used for low-cycle fatigue.
ber of studies have been made and some amounts of data on
It is well known that mechanical properties of metallic films
fatigue failure of copper thin films have been reported [1–6]. Park
significantly differ from those of their bulk counterpart and vary
et al. [2] performed the tensile and high-cycle fatigue test on three
depending on the fabrication method [7], film thickness [8,9]
types of copper-based films fabricated by changing the deposition
and loading conditions [10,11]. Likewise, fatigue behaviors of
sequence and curing condition of tin and solder resist on copper
metallic films also can be affected by the large variations in their
thin film to investigate the influence of fabrication on characteris-
mechanical properties [12–17] and can show probabilistic nature.
tics of tensile and fatigue properties. They obtained stress-life
This means that the fatigue life of metallic films cannot be prop-
(S-N) curves for each copper thin films, and concluded that there
erly represented by a simple S-N curve and it is necessary to take
is little difference in the fatigue properties of the three kinds of
the probabilistic approach to evaluate their lifetime and improve
films. Park et al. [3] also tested a 15 lm thick electrodeposited
their reliability. However, the probabilistic investigation of fatigue
copper film for a relatively wide range of stress amplitude at two
failure of thin films is very limited while the probabilistic
levels of mean stresses and reported that the modified Goodman
approaches are widely adopted in bulk materials [18–21]. It is pri-
equation can well represent the mean stress effect. Lin et al. [4]
marily due to the difficulties in performing fatigue tests and meas-
uring fatigue behavior of thin films.
1
Corresponding author. In this study, electrodeposited copper films 12 lm thick were
Contributed by the Materials Division of ASME for publication in the JOURNAL OF
ENGINEERING MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY. Manuscript received May 3, 2013; final
tested under tension–tension fatigue at four levels of maximum
manuscript received August 1, 2013; published online September 17, 2013. Assoc. stress and two levels of mean stress. A detailed investigation of
Editor: Joost Vlassak. the probabilistic behavior of fatigue life was performed in order to

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 fitting was systematically evaluated. Moreover, the results
obtained from the detailed statistical analysis are discussed by
considering the deformation mode and the SEM measurements on
fatigue-fractured surfaces. Finally, based on the statistical analysis
results, PSN curves for copper thin film were obtained.

Specimen and Tensile Test Results

Fig. 1 Copper thin film for test specimens: (a) configuration
of the specimen and (b) TEM image of the specimen’s
microstructure
determine the dominant probability distribution for the copper
thin films. For this purpose, various estimation methods for cumu-
lative distribution function (including Kaplan–Meier, mean and
median rank among others) were used together with five probabil-
ity distributions (normal, 2-parameter log-normal, 3-parameter
log-normal, 2-parameter Weibull and 3-parameter Weibull). The
coefficient of the correlation for each method of fatigue life data
The material used in this study was an electrodeposited copper
film with a thickness of 12 lm manufactured by Furukawa Circuit
Foil Co. This copper film is mainly used in flexible printed circuit
board for electronic products. Figures 1(a) and 1(b) show the con-
figuration of the specimen and a transmission electron microscope
(TEM) image showing the microstructures of the specimen,
respectively. The specimens were fabricated via an etching pro-
cess to avoid mechanical damage resulting from typical machin-
ing process.
Focused ion beam and TEM study [22] showed that the grain
size varies over a wide range of values and the grain shape also
differs significantly from grain to grain. Grain orientations are
random and many twin boundaries can also be observed. Further-
more, due to the circumstances in the manufacturing process, the
roughness of the copper film is very different on its two surfaces,
i.e., the drum side and the outer side surfaces. The drum side sur-
face which was peeled off from the cathode drum is called the
“shiny side” and is lustrous, smooth and has a longitudinal line
pattern. The outer side surface which shows the end of the crystals
is called the ‘matte side’ and is lusterless and very bumpy. In
order to assess the surface roughness, atomic force microscope
measurements were also performed on both the shiny surface and
matte surface [23]. The surface roughness was measured on five
specimens and the arithmetic average roughness, Ra was obtained
from eight scan lines on the surface including two diagonal lines.
The surface roughness measurements yielded values of Ra equal
0.25 lm and 0.61 lm on the shiny surface and on the matte sur-
face, respectively. It was also shown in the previous study [23]
that the effect of the surface roughness on the fatigue life of the
copper used in this study is insignificant.
Table 1 shows the results of tensile tests which provide the
basic mechanical properties of the copper thin film used in this
study [22]. Tensile testing was performed on three specimens at
an initial loading rate of 5 MPa/s. As shown in Table 1, Young’s
modulus of copper thin films is somewhat lower than that of
bulk copper. For the electrodeposited copper thin films, however,
elastic modulus of 92 GPa (thickness of 35 lm) [8], 102 GPa
(thickness of 105 lm) [8], and 72 GPa (thickness of 15 lm) [3]
were reported. Thus, the measured value of 85 GPa in this study is
similar to the value of 92 GPa in Ref. [8]. Also, it has been
reported [8,24] that the elastic modulus of copper thin films is sig-
nificantly influenced by fabrication method, film thickness and
microstructure, and is generally below the bulk counterparts of
125 GPa [25] or 117 GPa [26]. More detailed information on the
specimen and the results of tensile tests can also be found in Refs.
[22,23].
Fatigue Testing System and Experimental Procedures
Fatigue tests were performed using an electrodynamic vertical
axial loading testing machine with a maximum loading capacity
of 5 N. The load was measured using a commercial load cell with

Table 1 Summary of tensile properties [22]

Test No. Elastic modulus (GPa) Yield strength (0.2% offset) (MPa) Tensile strength (MPa) Elongation (%)

1 80.7 234 316 11.7

2 85.4 233 316 14.1
3 88.7 238 318 13.8
Mean 84.9 235 317 13.2

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 Fig. 2 Testing system and load control procedure: (a) fatigue
tester and (b) flow chart for load control

Table 2 Fatigue test conditions

Smean (MPa) DS (MPa) Smax (MPa)

Fig. 3 Fatigue test results: (a) S-N curves at each mean stress
190 220 300 and (b) Smax–N and Smax–tf curves
180 280
150 265
120 250 Figure 3(a) shows the S–Nf curves obtained from the above
210 180 300 fatigue test conditions. As can be seen here, the mean stress has a
140 280 considerable effect on the fatigue lives for Smean ¼ 190 MPa and
110 265 Smean ¼ 210 MPa. Although the slope for Smean ¼ 210 MPa is
80 250
slightly higher than that at Smean ¼ 190 MPa, the difference in the
slopes is insignificant. In this work, only three specimens were
tested for Smax ¼ 250 MPa at Smean ¼ 210 MPa (which is the low-
est stress level for the fatigue tests) due to time constraints. How-
a capacity of 2.45 N as shown in Fig. 2(a). (See also Ref. [22] for ever, it is worthy to note that in this study, the fatigue tests at
a more detailed specification of the testing machine used in this high-cycle regime (above 107 cycles) for the thin films were con-
study.) ducted and they produced valuable results for the fatigue life of
Fatigue tests were carried out at a frequency of 28 Hz and at thin metal films. Meanwhile, regarding the mean stress effect, the
four levels of maximum stress with two levels of mean stress modified Goodman and Gerber equations had been considered the
under load controlling conditions. The fatigue load signal is moni- best approach to account for the effect of mean stress. However, it
tored cycle by cycle and if the mean load or the load amplitude is was found that although the mean stress effect could be reduced
not within an allowable error band (60.1%), the command input and the modified Goodman equation provided a somewhat better
signal to the testing machine is adjusted by a control program in a estimate of the mean stress than the Gerber equation, a mean
computer. Both the mean load and the load amplitude were stress effect still remained noticeably. All these results are well in
successfully controlled within a maximum error of about 0.25%. correspondence with authors’ previous results [22].
Figure 2(b) shows the flow chart of the load control setup. In addi- Figure 3(b) shows plots of Smax versus life. Irrespective of the
tion, in order to obtain large amount of data in the course of the mean stress, fatigue life can be represented by Smax although the
fatigue tests, the testing system control and data acquisition were slope of Smax–Nf line is 0.023, smaller than those observed in Fig.
made separately, using two computer sets and were all automated. 3(a). The solid marks in Fig. 3(b) are the authors’ previous results
[22] obtained from static (constant) load tests, which will be
described later in more detail. Static (constant) load tests had been
Fatigue Test Results carried out at stress levels of S ¼ 290, 280, 270, and 220 MPa. All
The fatigue tests were conducted using mean stress values of specimens tested at stress levels above the yield stress of 235 MPa
190 and 210 MPa, respectively. The detailed loading conditions failed within 9 h, but the specimen tested at a stress of 220 MPa
for the fatigue tests are summarized in Table 2. Based on the ear- did not fail within 220 h (corresponding to 2.22  107 cycles at
lier works and results obtained by the authors [22,23], the ranges 28 Hz).
of the stress (DS) were chosen so that the maximum stresses On the other hand, as shown in Fig. 3(b), all fatigue lives are
(Smax) are the same at each mean stress (Smean). in the vicinity of a single line from low-cycle to high-cycle life

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 Fig. 4 An example of fitting estimation results to probability distributions: (a) modified
Kaplan–Meier rank, (b) mean rank, and (c) median rank

regime. This implies that the fatigue lives of copper thin film used • normal distribution
in this study could be governed by a single failure mechanism
over the entire life regime. This will also be discussed further in  
1 1 2
sections Statistical Analysis and Discussion. f ðxÞ ¼ p ffiffiffiffiffi
ffi exp  2 ðx  lÞ  1 < x < 1 (4)
r 2p 2r

Statistical Analysis where f(x) is the probability density function, r is the stand-
The statistical analysis was conducted from the fatigue life ard deviation, and l is the mean of the distribution.
obtained above. For the case at hand, K–S (Kolmogorov–Smirnov) • 3-parameter log-normal distribution
test [27] generally used to analyze probability distribution [28–30]
was utilized. Furthermore, in order to determine the ranking of dis- " #
tributions, various probability distributions and estimation methods flnððx  hÞ=mÞg2
exp 
for cumulative distribution functions (i.e., cumulative probability) 2r2
were examined. The estimation methods for the cumulative dis- f ðxÞ ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffi ; x  h; m; r > 0 (5)
tribution functions (the rank methods) used in this study are as ðx  hÞr 2p
follows [31]:
• modified Kaplan–Meier rank where f(x) is the probability density function, r is the shape
parameter, h is the location parameter, m is the scale
i  0:5 parameter.
Fðti Þ ¼ (1) • 2-parameter log-normal distribution
n
The case where h equals zero in Eq. (5)
• mean rank • 3-parameter Weibull distribution
i    
Fðti Þ ¼ (2) y  y0 n
nþ1 FðyÞ ¼ 1  exp  ; y  y0
n (6)
• median rank ¼ 0; y < y0
i  0:3
Fðti Þ ¼ (3) where y0 is the location parameter or minimum life, n is the
n þ 0:4 scale parameter or characteristic life, n is the shape parameter
or Weibull slope.
where F(ti) is the cumulative probability distribution function • 2-parameter Weibull
and ti is the failure time of component i. Likewise, the proba-
bility distributions considered in this study are listed below The case where y0 equals zero in Eq. (6).
in terms of cumulative distribution function or probability We would like to note at this point that for the 3-parameter
density function. The Latter can be obtained by differentiat- Weibull distribution plot, the related formula was modified as
ing the former [32] follows:

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 Table 3 Ranking of the probability distributions

Ranking

Smax (MPa) F(x) estimation method First Second Third Fourth Fifth

250 Modified Kaplan–Meier 3-lognormal Lognormal 3-Weibull Weibull Normal

(R¼0.95678) (R¼0.95653) (R¼0.94600) (R¼0.92387) (R¼0.86628)
Mean 3-lognormal Lognormal 3-Weibull Weibull Normal
(R¼0.95988) (R¼0.95904) (R¼0.95519) (R¼0.93875) (R¼0.85904)
Median 3-lognormal Lognormal 3-Weibull Weibull Normal
(R¼0.95847) (R¼0.95796) (R¼0.95100) (R¼0.93173) (R¼0.86279)
265 Modified Kaplan–Meier 3-Weibull 3-lognmormal Lognormal Normal Weibull
(R¼0.98392) (R¼0.96723) (R¼0.96371) (R¼0.94767) (R¼0.93271)
Mean 3-Weibull 3-lognmormal Lognormal Normal Weibull
(R¼0.98430) (R¼0.97425) (R¼0.97210) (R¼0.95347) (R¼0.95140)
Median 3-Weibull 3-lognmormal Lognormal Normal Weibull
(R¼0.98407) (R¼0.97080) (R¼0.96808) (R¼0.95076) (R¼0.94236)
280 Modified Kaplan–Meier 3-Weibull Weibull 3-lognormal Normal Lognormal
(R¼0.98816) (R¼0.98743) (R¼0.98713) (R¼0.98130) (R¼0.97828)
Mean 3-lognormal 3-Weibull Weibull Normal Lognormal
(R¼0.98785) (R¼0.98679) (R¼0.98663) (R¼0.98221) (R¼0.97693)
Median 3-lognormal 3-Weibull Weibull Normal Lognormal
(R¼0.98766) (R¼0.98749) (R¼0.98744) (R¼0.98193) (R¼0.97778)
300 Modified Kaplan–Meier 3-Weibull 3-lognormal Lognormal Normal Weibull
(R¼0.96414) (R¼0.95546) (R¼0.95053) (R¼0.93190) (R¼0.93038)
Mean 3-Weibull 3-lognormal Lognormal Weibull Normal
(R¼0.96261) (R¼0.95954) (R¼0.95662) (R¼0.94240) (R¼0.93983)
Median 3-Weibull 3-lognormal Lognormal Weibull Normal
(R¼0.96324) (R¼0.95758) (R¼0.95373) (R¼0.93662) (R¼0.93603)

      
y  y0 n ln ln
1
¼ n lnðy  y0 Þ  n lnðnÞ (9)
FðyÞ  1 ¼ exp  (7) FðyÞ  1
n
   
1 y  y0 n The 3-parameter Weibull distribution should be linear when
ln ¼ (8) plotted in the probability paper by setting the left side of Eq. (9)
FðyÞ  1 n

Fig. 5 Variations in R values among the rankings: (a) modified Kaplan–Meier rank, (b) mean
rank, and (c) median rank

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 Fig. 6 Fracture appearances: (a) illustration of fracture appearance, (b) tensile
specimen, and (c) statically loaded specimen tested at S 5 290 MPa (tf 5 0.6 h).
Fatigue specimen tested at (d) Smax 5 250 MPa (Smean 5 210 MPa, DS 5 80 MPa,
Nf 5 1.05 3 108 cycles), and (e) Smax 5 300 MPa (Smean 5 210 MPa, DS 5 180 MPa,
Nf 5 2.40 3 104 cycles).

as the ordinate (y axis) and ln (y) in the right side as the abscissa
(x axis).
To determine the most dominant probability distribution (from
those enumerated above) for each maximum stress, the fatigue
lives were plotted on five different probability papers for each
of the respective estimation methods of cumulative distribution
functions. From these plots, using a linear regression analysis, the
distribution parameters and the coefficient of correlation, R value
as a goodness-of-fit criterion were calculated and then the R
values were compared in order to establish a ranking of the
distributions. The distribution which has the highest R value was
determined as the most dominant probability distribution (i.e., first
ranking). For example, Fig. 4 shows the plots on probability distri-
bution papers for Smax ¼ 280 MPa that have the highest R value
for the respective rank methods. This technique for determining
the probability distribution is often used for evaluating the distri-
bution of the fatigue life of bulk materials [33,34].
Table 3 shows the ranking in the probability distributions at
each Smax using the above mentioned technique. As can be seen in
Table 3, there is no clear distinction in the probability distribution
according to the estimation methods for the cumulative distribu-
tion functions; Modified Kaplan–Meier rank, mean rank and

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 median rank. Therefore, it can be concluded that the estimation
methods for cumulative distribution functions does not have a
significant effect on determining the probability distribution.
Moreover, it was also found in Table 3 that the most frequent dis-
tribution for the first ranking is outwardly the 3-Weibull distribu-
tion. However, it should be emphasized that the R values of the
five distributions are only slightly different from each other
regardless of Smax levels. Figure 5 shows the variations in R value
between the first ranked distribution and other ranked distribution
(i.e., from second ranked distribution to fifth ranked distribution).
The variation is simply defined as follows:
Rfirst  Rith
Variation ð%Þ ¼  100; 2i5 (10)
Rfirst
As shown in Fig. 5, the variation in R values seems insignificant,
and is less than about 10% irrespective of the estimation methods
for cumulative distribution functions and the probability distribu-
tions. Especially, it was also found from the statistical analysis
(K–S test) that no probability distribution was rejected under a
significance level of 5% which is the general condition of signifi-
cance level for goodness-of-fit test [35]. Therefore, it is inferred
that all the five probability distributions can represent the fatigue
life of the copper thin film used in this study.
Moreover, the 3-parameter Weibull and 3-parameter log-nor-
mal distribution frequently appeared in the first and second rank-
ing in Table 3. However, this is not thought to be due to the
probabilistic behavior of the copper thin film tested here. This
result may come from the number of fitting parameters for
linear regression, i.e., the 3-parameter Weibull and 3-parameter
log-normal distribution have one more parameter compared to
other distribution functions as shown in Eqs. (4)–(6). Conse-
quently, it is natural that the 3-parameter Weibull and 3-parameter
log-normal distribution can better describe the fatigue life for
Fig. 7 PSN curves of copper thin film: (a) modified Kaplan–Meier rank, (b) mean rank, and (c)
median rank
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linear regression analysis and have higher R values. Nevertheless, it
is worthy to note that in the case of Smax ¼ 250 MPa, the first and
second ranked probability distributions are different from that of
other Smax, i.e., regardless of the number of fitting parameters, log-
normal distribution is in the high ranking. A more detailed discus-
sion on this matter will be presented in the Discussions section.
Discussions
In general, it is well known that the probabilistic behavior of fa-
tigue life can be represented by using extreme value distribution
especially by log-normal and Weibull distribution [36] among
others since fatigue failure is normally induced by localized defor-
mation, fracture at defects and stress concentrated microscopic
notches [37–39]. However, as examined previously, it can be said
that the 3-parameter Weibull distribution provides the best fit of
the measured data among the tested five distributions, but the dif-
ferences in the coefficient of correlation among them are too
small.
Although all fatigue life is longer than 104 cycles corresponding
to the lower limit of high-cycle fatigue regime, the stress condi-
tions in this study were so high that the range of Sm was 60–66%
of tensile strength Su and 81–89% of yield strength Sy. Also, the
range of Smax was 79–95% of Su, all of which exceeded Sy. Thus,
it is very possible that fatigue fractures were more affected by the
static stress component than the stress amplitude component [22].
As already mentioned, the data of Smax versus the fracture time
(life) tf for statically constant loading are indicated by the solid
marks together with fatigue loading data in Fig. 3(b). The life
under statically constant loading corresponds well to the life under
fatigue loading with a small difference. This result implies that
within the range of this study on the copper thin film, fatigue life
is governed mostly by the same parameter controlling the static
loading life. From the previous results [22,23], it has been shown
that with load cycling, cyclic deformation occurred and the
OCTOBER 2013, Vol. 135 / 041007-7
 load–displacement curve shifted continuously in the positive
direction of displacement. This is the so-called ratcheting or cyclic
creep deformation which is often observed for fatigue behavior of
copper thin films [3,4,40]. The mean plastic strain (ratcheting
strain) increased greatly together with slight increase of plastic
strain amplitude, and the copper film used in this study only failed
when the mean plastic strain (ratcheting strain) reached a specific
final value. Consequently, fatigue damage had been well
described using the value of the mean plastic strain (ratcheting
strain). Significant plastic strain can be developed in ductile mate-
rials when the applied stress to them is greater than their yield
stress. This explains why the life under statically constant loading
corresponds to the life under fatigue loading and the fatigue life is
well represented by Smax [22].
Therefore, it is highly suspected that the fatigue life of the cop-
per thin film used in this study relies on a different deformation or
fracture mode dominated by the static stress component during
the fatigue tests unlike the general case in fatigue failures. This
can be supported by the observation of fracture surfaces induced
by different loading conditions. Figures 6(b)–6(e) shows an exam-
ple of fracture appearances of tensile specimen, statically loaded
specimen, and fatigue specimens, respectively. As can be seen in
the figure, although not exactly the same, all fracture appearances
look almost similar regardless of testing methods except on the
initial region of fatigue fracture. Specimens show extensive neck-
ing throughout the thickness of the fractured surfaces as illustrated
in Fig. 6(a). These fracture shapes of fatigue specimens can be
seldom found on fatigue-fractured surfaces of the bulk materials
and it means that fatigue life of the copper thin film used here can-
not be described by typical fatigue fracture mechanisms. This also
shows a different probabilistic behavior of fatigue life and conse-
quently reveals that that there is no dominant probability distribu-
tion as mentioned above.
However, there is a slight distinction between Figs. 6(b), 6(c),
and 6(d).The initial region for fatigue fracture shows more brittle
features; almost flat and intergranular fractured shape which is
often found in fatigue-fractured surface. For comparison, the
fractured shape of the fatigue specimen at Smax ¼ 300 MPa is also
shown in Fig. 6(e), which shows clear necking without intergranu-
lar failure. It implies that the dominant parameter in the fatigue
fracture behavior probably changed from continuous deformation
by static stress component to the typical fatigue fracture behavior
at Smax ¼ 250 MPa. Therefore, if fatigue testing is performed at a
maximum stress much lower than the yield stress with relevant
cyclic stress amplitude, the resulting fatigue life will be over than
108 cycles to failure and a more typical surface for fatigue fracture
might be obtained. In that case also, it is quite possible that the
mechanism for the fatigue failure of copper thin film used in this
work may become similar to that in bulk materials. This observa-
tion might be the reason for the slight difference in ranking of the
probability distribution for Smax ¼ 250 MPa as described previ-
ously. Accordingly, to widely examine the probabilistic character
of the copper thin film used in this study, additional fatigue tests
are needed at Smax lower than the yield stress. Note, however, that
if Smax is much lower than the yield stress, the fatigue life will be
almost infinite as can be seen in Fig. 3(b) and it will be very diffi-
cult to be carried out. Hence, to precisely examine the inherent
probabilistic behavior of thin metal films, many additional studies
are still needed in future works.
Figure 7 shows the PSN curves of the fatigue life of copper thin
films used in this study for each of the estimation methods for
cumulative distribution functions. From the previous results and
for the sake of convenience, PSN curves are obtained using the 3-
parameter Weibull distribution for all Smax levels. Based on the
above results, it is not surprising that there is also no clear distinc-
tion in PSN curves for each of the estimation methods for the
cumulative distribution functions. The PSN curve obtained in this
study is expected to be valuable for representing a probabilistic
character of the copper thin film for the intermediate fatigue life
regime.
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Conclusions
In this study, the probabilistic behavior of the fatigue life for
copper thin film was investigated. Tension–tension fatigue tests
were performed at four levels of maximum stress and two levels
of mean stress. From the test results, a detailed statistical analysis
of the fatigue life was performed. It was found that there were no
significant differences in the resulting probability distributions
with respect to the estimation methods for calculating cumulative
distribution function. All three estimation methods yielded the
almost the same results. Furthermore, a dominant cumulative dis-
tribution was not found among five alternative distributions since
they yielded similar values of coefficient of correlation during the
fitting of the experimental fatigue data. The absence of the domi-
nant distribution was discussed by considering the fatigue mecha-
nism and SEM measurements of fatigue-fractured surfaces. Based
on the statistical analysis of the experimental fatigue data, PSN
curves including both low- and high-cycle fatigue regions were
obtained using the 3-parameter Weibull distribution for all Smax
levels which is expected to be useful for understanding probabilis-
tic characteristics of the copper film and for estimating reliability
of the electronics products with copper films under cyclic loading.
Acknowledgment
This research was supported by the Industrial Core Technology
Development Programs of the Korean Ministry of Knowledge
Economy (Grant No. 10033309), National Platform Technology
Programs of the Korean Ministry of Knowledge Economy (Grant
No. 10034751), and the National Research Foundation of Korea
(NRF) grant funded by the South Korean government (MEST)
(No. 2011R1A2A2A02649388).
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