Novellus Systems Incorporated

Lam Research Corporation

Lam Research Comporation

Bryan L Buckalew

Steven T Mayer

Robert Rash

Thomas Anand Ponnuswamy

David W Porter

Aaron Berke

Stephen J Banik

Lee Peng Chua

Seshasayee Varadarajan

Shantinath Ghongadi

Jonathan David Reid

Gabriel Hay Graham

Zhian He

Kousik Ganesan

Frederick Dean Wilmot

Tariq Majid

Brian Paul Blackman

Justin Oberst

Haiying Fu

James Isaac Fortner

Gregory Kearns

Jeyavel Velmurugan

Kari Thorkelsson

Jeff Hawkins

Burhanuddin Kagajwala

Manish Ranjan

John Floyd Ostrowski

John H Sukamto

Chad Michael Hosack

Douglas Hill

Jacob Kurtis Blickensderfer

Stephen J Banik, Ii

Doug Higley

Alfred Bostick

Sean Wilbur

Hilton Diaz Camilo

Bart Jan Van Schravendijk

Mandyam Sriram

George Andrew Antonelli

Jennifer O'Loughlin

Vishwanathan Rangarajan

Richard G Abraham

Mark L Rea

Bryan Pennington

Brian Evans

Glenn Ibarreta

Tony Xavier

Eric G Webb

Patrick G Breiling

Richard S Hill

Jeffrey Alan Hawkins

Sesha Varadarajan

Jacob Lee Hiester

Joseph Richardson

Santosh Kumar

Yuichi Takada

Charles Lorenzo Merrill

Seyang Park

Clifford Raymond Berry

Johanes H Sukamto

Jason Daniel Marchetti

James R Zibrida

Defu Liang

Ben Foley

Edwin Goh

Patrick Breling

Vinay Prabhakar

Margolita M Pollack

Direct copper-copper bonding at low temperatures is achieved by electroplating copper features on a substrate followed by electroplanarizing the copper features. The copper features are electroplated on the substrate under conditions so that nanotwinned copper structures are formed. Electroplanarizing the copper features is performed by anodically biasing the substrate and contacting the copper features with an electrolyte so that copper is electrochemically removed. Such electrochemical removal is performed in a manner so that roughness is reduced in the copper features and substantial coplanarity is achieved among the copper features. Copper features having nanotwinned copper structures, reduced roughness, and better coplanarity enable direct copper-copper bonding at low temperatures.

Low temperature direct copper-copper bonding

An electroplating cup assembly comprises a cup bottom, a lip seal, and an electrical contact structure. The cup bottom at least partially defines an opening configured to allow exposure of a wafer positioned in the cup assembly to an electroplating solution. The lip seal is on the cup bottom and comprises a sealing structure extending upwardly along an inner edge of the lip seal to a peak that is configured to be in contact with a seed layer of a wafer and adjacent to a sacrificial layer of the wafer. The electrical contact structure is over a portion of the seal. The electrical contact structure configured to be coupled to the seed layer of the wafer.

Edge removal for through-resist plating in an electro-plating cup assembly

Systems and methods are provided for method for etch assisted gold (Au) through silicon mask plating (EAG-TSM). An example method comprises providing a seed layer on a substrate and providing a silicon mask on at least a portion of the seed layer on the substrate. The silicon mask includes one or more via to be filled with Au. The masked substrate is subjected to at least one processing cycle, each processing cycle including an Au plating sub-step and an etch treatment sub-step. The cycles are repeated until a selected via fill thickness is achieved.

Gold through silicon mask plating

Sequential electrodeposition of metals into through-mask features on a semiconductor substrate is conducted such as to reduce the deleterious consequences of lipseal's pressure onto the mask material. In a first electroplating step, a first metal (e.g., nickel) is electrodeposited using a lipseal that has an innermost point of contact with the semiconductor substrate at a first distance from the edge of the substrate. In a second electroplating step, a second metal (e.g., tin) is electrodeposited using a lipseal that has an innermost point of contact with the semiconductor substrate at a greater distance from the edge of the substrate than the first distance. This allows to at least partially shift the lipseal pressure from a point that could have been damaged during the first electrodeposition step and to shield from electrolyte any cracks that might have formed in the mask material during the first electroplating step.

Lipseal edge exclusion engineering to maintain material integrity at wafer edge

The embodiments herein relate to apparatuses and methods for electroplating one or more materials onto a substrate. Embodiments herein utilize a cross flow conduit in the electroplating cell to divert flow of fluid from a region between a substrate and a channeled ionically resistive plate positioned near the substrate down to a level lower than level of fluid in a fluid containment unit for collecting overflow fluid from the plating system for recirculation. The cross flow conduit can include channels cut into components of the plating cell to allow diverted flow, or can include an attachable diversion device mountable to an existing plating cell to divert flow downwards to the fluid containment unit. Embodiments also include a flow restrictor which may be a plate or a pressure relief valve for modulating flow of fluid in the cross flow conduit during plating.

Cross flow conduit for foaming prevention in high convection plating cells

In one example, an electroplating apparatus is provided for electroplating a wafer. The electroplating apparatus comprises a wafer holder for holding a wafer during an electroplating operation and a plating cell configured to contain an electrolyte during the electroplating operation. An anode chamber is disposed within the plating cell, and a charge plate is disposed within the anode chamber. An anode is positioned above the charge plate within the anode chamber. In some examples, the anode chamber is a membrane-less anode chamber.

Apparatus for an inert anode plating cell

An electroplating apparatus includes an electrode at the bottom of a chamber, an ionically resistive element with through holes arranged horizontally at the top of the chamber, with a membrane in the middle. One or more panels extend vertically and parallelly from the membrane to the element and extend linearly across the chamber, forming a plurality of regions between the membrane and the element. A substrate with a protuberance extending along a chord of the substrate and contacting a top surface of the element is arranged above a first region. An electrolyte flowed between the substrate and the element descends into the first region via the through holes on a first side of the protuberance and ascends from the first region via the through holes on a second side of the protuberance, forcing air bubbles out from a portion of the element associated with the first region.

Removing bubbles from plating cells

In one example, an electroplating system comprises a first bath reservoir, a second bath reservoir, a clamp, a first anode in the first bath reservoir, a second anode in the second bath reservoir, and a direct current power supply. The first bath reservoir contains a first electrolyte solution that includes an alkaline copper-complexed solution. The second bath reservoir contains a second electrolyte solution that includes an acidic copper plating solution. The direct current power supply generates a first direct current between the clamp and the first anode to electroplate a first copper layer on the cobalt layer of the wafer submerged in the first electrolyte solution. The direct current power supply then generates a second direct current between the clamp and the second anode to electroplate a second copper layer on the first copper layer of the wafer submerged in the second electrolyte solution.

Copper electrodeposition sequence for the filling of cobalt lined features

An apparatus for electroplating a semiconductor wafer includes an insert member configured to circumscribe a processing region. The insert member has a top surface. A portion of the top surface of the insert member has an upward slope that slopes upward from a peripheral area of the top surface of the insert member toward the processing region. The apparatus also includes a seal member having an annular-disk shape. The seal member is positioned on the top surface of the insert member. The seal member is flexible such that an outer radial portion of the seal member conforms to the upward slope of the top surface of the insert member and such that an inner radial portion of the seal member projects inward toward the processing region.

Flow assisted dynamic seal for high-convection, continuous-rotation plating

An electroplating apparatus for electroplating metal on a substrate includes a plating chamber configured to contain an electrolyte, a substrate holder configured to hold and rotate the substrate during electroplating, an anode, and an azimuthally asymmetric auxiliary electrode configured to be biased both anodically and cathodically during electroplating. The azimuthally asymmetric auxiliary electrode (which may be, for example, C-shaped), can be used for controlling azimuthal uniformity of metal electrodeposition by donating and diverting ionic current at a selected azimuthal position. In another aspect, an electroplating apparatus for electroplating metal includes a plating chamber configured to contain an electrolyte, a substrate holder configured to hold and rotate the substrate during electroplating, an anode, a shield configured to shield current at the periphery of the substrate; and an azimuthally asymmetric auxiliary anode configured to donate current to the shielded periphery of the substrate at a selected azimuthal position on the substrate.

Electroplating apparatus for tailored uniformity profile

In one example, a method for redistribution layer (RDL) process is described. A substrate is provided. A dielectric layer is deposited on top of the substrate. The dielectric layer is patterned. A barrier and copper seed layer are deposited on top of the dielectric layer. A photoresist layer is applied on top of the barrier and copper seed layer. The photoresist layer is patterned to correspond with the dielectric layer pattern. Copper is electrodepositing in the patterned regions exposed by the photoresist layer. The photoresist layer is removed. The copper and seed barrier are etched.

Alternative integration for redistribution layer process

Removing bubbles from plating cell

In one example, an electroplating system comprises a bath reservoir, a holding device, an anode, a direct current power supply, and a controller. The bath reservoir contains an electrolyte solution. The holding device holds a wafer submerged in the electrolyte solution. The wafer comprises features covered by a cobalt layer. The anode is opposite to the wafer and submerged in the electrolyte solution. The direct current power supply generates a direct current between the holding device and the anode. A combination of forward and reverse pulses is applied between the holding device and the anode to electroplate a copper layer on the cobalt layer of the wafer.

Copper electrodeposition on cobalt lined features

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Tualatin, OR, United States of America

Bryan L Buckalew