International Business Machines Corporation

Adreanne Kelly

Samuel McKnight

Frederic Beaulieu

Wolfgang Sauter

Kevin Shawn Petrarca

Richard Paul Volant

Takashi Hisada

David Angell

Caitlin W Weinstein

Hiromitsu Miyai

Kwong Hon Wong

William Joseph Murphy

Matthew J Farinelli

Lloyd G Burrell

Gobinda Das

Steven J Duda

Techniques for bond pad fabrication are provided. In one aspect, a method of forming a bond pad comprises the following steps. At least one alloying element is selectively introduced to at least a portion of at least one surface of the bond pad. The at least one alloying element is diffused into at least a portion of the bond pad through one or more thermal cycles. The at least one alloying element may be selectively introduced to the bond pad by depositing an alloying element layer comprising the at least one alloying element onto the bond pad and patterning and etching at least a portion of the layer.

Techniques for improving bond pad performance

Disclosed is a reinforced bond pad structure having nonplanar dielectric structures and a metallic bond layer conformally formed over the nonplanar dielectric structures. The nonplanar dielectric structures are substantially reproduced in the metallic bond layer so as to form nonplanar metallic structures. Surrounding each of the nonplanar metallic structures is a ring of dielectric material which provides a hard stop during probing of the bond pad so as to limit the amount of bond pad that can be removed during probing.

Internally reinforced bond pads

A semiconductor device, and a method of fabricating the device, having a copper wiring level and an aluminum bond pad above the copper wiring level. In addition to a barrier layer which is normally present to protect the copper wiring level, there is a composite layer between the aluminum bond pad and the barrier layer to make the aluminum bond pad more robust so as to withstand the forces of bonding and probing. The composite layer is a sandwich of a refractory metal and a refractory metal nitride.

Semiconductor device having a composite layer in addition to a barrier layer between copper wiring and aluminum bond pad

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Poughkeepsie, NY, United States of America

Adreanne Kelly