Influences of deformation defects on etching behaviors of high-strength and high-conductivity Cu alloy for lead frame

With increasing integration of the semiconductor devices, the requirements on size accuracy and surface quality of the lead frame are higher. Cold-rolling and low-temperature aging are usually used in processing of the Cu alloy for lead frame, which generate/eliminate the deformation defects that affect the etched surface morphology and roughness, while the influence mechanisms have not been well revealed. In this study, the CuCrSn alloy was used as the experimental material, which was cold-rolled to different degree and then aged at 450 °C for different time, and the microstructures and etched surfaces of the specimens were characterized. The results show that etched surface morphologies of grains with different orientations in the coarse-grained Cu alloy are different. With increasing cold-rolling deformation, the influences of grain orientation become less obvious, and the dislocation groups on the slip planes result in grooves approximately parallel to the rolling direction, meanwhile the surface uniformity are improved and the surface roughness decreases. For the 80 % cold-rolled Cu alloy, the density of grooves decreases with increasing aging time and elimination of the dislocations, and the etched surface roughness decreases firstly and then tends to be stable. The etched surface changes significantly and the surface roughness increase obviously after recrystallization of the specimen.