Abstract
Local mechanical properties of a copper line were mapped by doing nanoindentation test inside scanning electron microscope. The evaluated reduced modulus and the hardness had a large scatter without the clear trend related to the geometry of copper line. The crystal orientation distribution of the copper was measured to investigate the correlation between the fluctuation of local mechanical properties and the microstructure. Considering the statistical trend, the reduced modulus looked insensitive to the microstructure around the indents and the hardness looked sensitive. The average of the hardness obtained by indents nearby the junction of boundaries was higher than the average obtained by indents far from boundaries, where the boundary means either a twin boundary or a grain boundary. In addition, a larger scatter was observed in the hardness nearby the junction than of the hardness far from boundaries.
