Cu thin films have been produced by an electroplating method using nominal 9N anode and nominal 6N CuSO(4)center dot 5H(2)O electrolyte. Film samples were heat-treated by two procedures: conventional isothermal annealing in hydrogen atmosphere (abbreviated as H(2) annealing) and rapid thermal annealing with an infrared lamp (abbreviated as RTA). After heat treatment, the average grain diameters and the grain orientation distributions were examined by electron backscattering pattern analysis. The RTA samples (400 degrees C for 5 min) have a larger average grain diameter, more uniform grain distribution and higher ratio of (111) orientation than H(2) annealed samples (400 degrees C for 30 min). This means that RTA can produce films with coarser and more uniformly distributed grains than H(2) annealing within a short time, i.e. only a few minutes. To clarify the grain coarsening mechanism, grain growth by RTA was simulated using the phase field method. The simulated grain diameter reaches its maximum at a heating rate which is the same order as that in the actual RTA experiment. The maximum grain diameter is larger than that obtained by H(2) annealing with the same annealing time at the isothermal stage as in RTA. The distribution of the misorientation was analyzed which led to a proposed grain growth model for the RTA method. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.