Description

This paper reviews the role of several major factors affecting the electrical resistivity/conductivity of copper wire and focuses on the influence of residual impurities, test temperature, alloying elements and oxygen content. The importance of solid state reactions upon final properties is described in detail. A new analytical model is presented and predicts the relationship between elements that are dissolved in copper and the resulting electrical resistivity. It takes into account the elastic strain energy of the matrix, atomic-size calculated in terms of volume, valence effects and volume size factor differences between solute elements and copper.