Improvement of electrodeposition rate of Cu layer by heat treatment of electroless Cu seed layer

Abstract

A thin Cu seed layer for electroplating has been employed for decades in the miniaturization and integration of printed circuit board (PCB), however many problems are still caused by the thin Cu seed layer, e.g., open circuit faults in PCB, dimple defects, low conductivity, and etc. Here, we studied the effect of heat treatment of the thin Cu seed layer on the deposition rate of electroplated Cu. We investigated the heat-treatment effect on the crystallite size, morphology, electrical properties, and electrodeposition thickness by X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscope (AFM), four point probe (FPP), and scanning electron microscope (SEM) measurements, respectively. The results showed that post heat treatment of the thin Cu seed layer could improve surface roughness as well as electrical conductivity. Moreover, the deposition rate of electroplated Cu was improved about 148% by heat treatment of the Cu seed layer, indicating that the enhanced electrical conductivity and surface roughness accelerated the formation of Cu nuclei during electroplating. We also confirmed that the electrodeposition rate in the via filling process was also accelerated by heat-treating the Cu seed layer. © Materials Research Society of Korea.