Effect of Surface Contamination on the Diffusion Bonding of Copper

An investigation was made of the effect of cleaning the contacting surfaces of copper samples upon the strength of the diffusion bond formed. The cleaning of surfaces by filing and the diffusion bonding were carried out in high vacuum. Results showed that the bond formed between samples cleaned by filing was greater than the bond formed by samples that were not cleaned prior to bonding. An analysis is made of the data to show that the activation energy of the bonding process is much less than the activation energy of bulk self diffusion of copper.