The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 18, 2001
Filed:
Aug. 31, 1999
Linlin Chen, Kalispell, MT (US);
Semitool, Inc., Kalispell, MT (US);
Abstract
This invention employs a novel approach to the copper metallization of a workpiece, such as a semiconductor workpiece. In accordance with the invention, an alkaline electrolytic copper bath is used to electroplate copper onto a seed layer, electroplate copper directly onto a barrier layer material, or enhance an ultra-thin copper seed layer which has been deposited on the barrier layer using a deposition process such as PVD. The resulting copper layer provides an excellent conformal copper coating that fills trenches, vias, and other microstructures in the workpiece. When used for seed layer enhancement, the resulting copper seed layer provide an excellent conformal copper coating that allows the microstructures to be filled with a copper layer having good uniformity using electrochemical deposition techniques. Further, copper layers that are electroplated in the disclosed manner exhibit low sheet resistance and are readily annealed at low temperatures.