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:
May. 15, 2007
Filed:
May. 31, 2005
Howard R. Test, Plano, TX (US);
Donald C. Abbott, Norton, MA (US);
Howard R. Test, Plano, TX (US);
Donald C. Abbott, Norton, MA (US);
Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX (US);
Abstract
A metal structure for a contact pad of a wafer or substrate (), which have copper interconnecting traces () surrounded by a barrier metal layer (). The wafer or substrate is protected by an insulating overcoat (). In the structure, the barrier metal layer is selectively exposed by a window () in the insulating overcoat. A layer of copper (), adherent to the barrier metal, conformally covers the exposed barrier metal. Preferably, the copper layer is deposited by sputtering using a shadow mask. A layer of nickel () is adherent to the copper layer and a layer of noble metal () is adherent to the nickel layer. The noble metal may be palladium, or gold, or a palladium layer with an outermost gold layer. Preferably, the nickel and noble metal layers are deposited by electroless plating.