Deposition of thick Co-rich CoPtP films with high energy product for magnetic microelectromechanical applications

We report the development of Co-rich CoPtP films of thicknesses up to 82 μm for use in magnetic MEMS applications. These films have been deposited using a combination of pulse-reverse plating with the addition of stress-relieving additives to the bath. The films were electroplated on sputtered Cu/Ti seed layer on silicon with an optimized thickness of 100/20 nm. The composition, crystalline structure, grain size and magnetic properties of the CoPtP films of varying thickness are compared and analyzed. The 3-μm-thick CoPtP film showed a columnar structure and strong perpendicular anisotropy. This film shows a perpendicular coercivity of 2150 Oe, a remanence of 0.564 T and a maximum energy product of 20 kJ/m³. As the thickness of the plated film is increased, there is a gradual decrease in the coercivity and anisotropy. The 82-μm-thick film had a perpendicular coercivity of 1150 Oe and a remanence of 0.35 T. While there is a drop in coercivity and anisotropy, the remanence and maximum energy product remain constant for film thicknesses greater than 13 μm. The reason for the drop in coercivity and the near-constant remanence for thicker CoPtP films is discussed here. The coercivity of the thick Co-rich CoPtP film reported in this work is similar to those reported in the literature; the values of remanence, maximum energy product and saturation magnetization are the highest of all the thick (>50 μm) electroplated films in the literature.