• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.136-143
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• 2003

In this paper, high purity RF sputter-type ion source for non-mass separated ion beam deposition was evaluated. The fundamental characteristics of the ion source which is composed of an RF Cu coil and a high purity Cu target (99.9999 %) was studied, and the practical application of Cu thin films for ULSI metallization was discussed. The relationship between the DC target current and the DC target voltage at various RF power and Ar gas pressures was measured, and then preparation conditions for Cu thin films was described. As a result, it was found that the deposition conditions of the target voltage, the target current and the Ar pressure were optimized at -300 V, 240 W and 9 Pa, respectively. The resistivity of Cu films deposited at a bias voltage of -50 V showed a minimum value of 1.8 $\pm$ 0.1 $mu\Omega$cm, which is close to that of Cu bulk (1.67 $mu\Omega$cm).

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.527-532
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• 2001

Dry etching of copper film using $O_2$ plasma and H(hfac) has been investigated. A one-step process consisting of copper film oxidation with an $O_2$ plasma and the removal of surface copper oxide by the reaction with H(hfac) to form volatile Cu(hfac)$_2$ and $H_2O$ was carried but. The etching rate of Cu in the range from 50 to 700 /min was obtained depending on the substrate temperature, the H(hfac)/O$_2$ flow rate ratio, and the plasma power. The copper film etch rate increased with increasing RF power at the temperatures higher than 215$^{\circ}C$. The optimum H(hfac)/O$_2$ flow rate ratio was 1:1, suggesting that the oxidation process and the reaction with H(hfac) should be in balance. Cu patterning using a Ti mask was performed at a flow rate ratio of 1:1 on 25$0^{\circ}C$\ulcorner and an isotropic etching profile with a taper slope of 30$^{\circ}$was obtained. Cu dry patterning with a tapered angle which is necessary for the advanced high resolution large area thin film transistor liquid-crystal displays was thus successfully obtained from one step process by manipulating the substrate temperature, RF power, and flow rate ratio.

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.04a
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• pp.230-234
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• 2009

It is significant technique to increase competitiveness that solar cells have a high energy conversion efficiency and cost effectiveness. When making high efficiency crystalline Si solar cells, evaporated Ti/Pd/Ag contact system is widely used in order to reduce the electrical resistance of the contact fingers. However, the evaporation process is no applicable to mass production because high vacuum is needed. Furthermore, those metals are too expensive to be applied for terrestrial applications. Ni/Cu/Ag contact system of silicon solar cells offers a relatively inexpensive method of making electrical contact. Ni silicide formation is one of the indispensable techniques for Ni/Cu/Ag contact sytem. Ni was electroless plated on the front grid pattern, After Ni electroless plating, the cells were annealed by RTP(Rapid Thermal Process). Ni silicide(NiSi) has certain advantages over Ti silicide($TiSi_2$), lower temperature anneal, one step anneal, low resistivity, low silicon consumption, low film stress, absence of reaction between the annealing ambient. Ni/Cu/Ag metallization scheme is an important process in the direction of cost reduction for solar cells of high efficiency. In this article we shall report an investigation of rapid thermal silicidation of nickel on silngle crystalline silicon wafers in the annealing range of $350-390^{\circ}C$. The samples annealed at temperatures from 350 to $390^{\circ}C$ have been analyzed by SEM(Scanning Electron Microscopy).

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.55-59
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• 2015

Novel low-volume solder-on-pad (SoP) process is proposed for a fine pitch Cu pillar bump interconnection. A novel solder bumping material (SBM) has been developed for the $60{\mu}m$ pitch SoP using screen printing process. SBM, which is composed of ternary Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu (SAC305) solder powder and a polymer resin, is a paste material to perform a fine-pitch SoP in place of the electroplating process. By optimizing the volumetric ratio of the resin, deoxidizing agent, and SAC305 solder powder; the oxide layers on the solder powder and Cu pads are successfully removed during the bumping process without additional treatment or equipment. The Si chip and substrate with daisy-chain pattern are fabricated to develop the fine pitch SoP process and evaluate the fine-pitch interconnection. The fabricated Si substrate has 6724 under bump metallization (UBM) with a $45{\mu}m$ diameter and $60{\mu}m$ pitch. The Si chip with Cu pillar bump is flip chip bonded with the SoP formed substrate using an underfill material with fluxing features. Using the fluxing underfill material is advantageous since it eliminates the flux cleaning process and capillary flow process of underfill. The optimized interconnection process has been validated by the electrical characterization of the daisy-chain pattern. This work is the first report on a successful operation of a fine-pitch SoP and micro bump interconnection using a screen printing process.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.1-7
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• 2008

We studied a growth behavior of Intermetallic compounds(IMCs) during solder bumping with two reflow methods. Ti(50 nm), Cu($1{\mu}m$), Au(50 nm) and Ti(50 nm) thin films were deposited on $SiO_2$/Si wafer using the DC magnetron sputtering system as the under bump metallization(UBM). And the $5{\mu}m$ thick Cu bumps and $20{\mu}m$ thick Sn bumps were fabricated on UBM by electroplating. Sn bumps were reflowed in RTA(Rapid Thermal Annealing) system and convection reflow oven. When RTA system was used, reflow was possible without using flux and IMC thickness formed in the solder interface was thinner than that of a convectional method.

• Journal of Korean Vacuum Science & Technology
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.24-29
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• 1997

Surface morphologies and fundamental characteristics of molybdenum nitride films deposited by reactive dc magnetron sputtering were studied for application to Cu diffusion barrier. A phase transformation from Mo to $\gamma$-Mo$_2$N phase at 0.5$N_2$ flow ratio.($N_2$/(Ar+$N_2$)) equal to and larger than 0.2, whereas a second phase transformation to $\gamma$-MoN phase at 0.5 N2 flow ratio, With the variation of the N2 ratio the surface morphologies of the films were generally smooth except the cases of 0.2 and 0.3$N_2$ gas rations, where build-up of film stresses occurred. $\gamma$-Mo$_2$N film was found to crystallize at the deposition temperature of 40$0^{\circ}C$. The surfaces of $\gamma$-Mo$_2$N films deposited up to 40$0^{\circ}C$ were smooth, but the film deposited at 50$0^{\circ}C$ had very rough surface morphology. It seems that this was due to the building-up of thermal stresses at the high deposition temperature, which might lead to hillock formation.

• Electrical & Electronic Materials
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.619-625
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• 1995

Polycrystalline CdTe thin film has been studied for photovoltaic application due to the 1.45 eV band gap energy ideal for solar energy conversion and high absorption coefficient. The formation of low resistance contact to p-CdTe is difficult because of large work function(>5.5eV). Common methods for ohmic contact to p-CdTe are to form a p+ region under the contact by in-diffusion of contact material to reduce the barrier height and modify a p-CdTe surface layer using chemical treatment. In this study, the surface chemical treatment of p CdTe was carried out by H$\_$3/PO$\_$4/+HNO$\_$3/ or K$\_$2/Cr$\_$2/O$\_$7/+H$\_$2/SO$\_$4/ solution to provide a Te-rich surface. And various thin film contact materials such as Cu, Au, and Cu/Au were deposited by E-beam evaporation to form ohmic contact to p-CdTe. After the metallization, post annealing was performed by oven heat treatment at 150.deg. C or by RTA(Rapid Thermal Annealing) at 250-350.deg. C. Surface chemical treatments of p-CdTe thin film improved metal/p-CdTe interface properties and post heat treatment resulted in low contact resistivity to p-CdTe.Of the various contact metal, Cu/Au and Cu show low contact resistance after oven and RTA post-heat treatments, respectively.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.517-523
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• 2015

As the aluminum (Al) metallization process was replaced with copper (Cu), the damascene process was introduced, which required the planarization step to eliminate over-deposited Cu with Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP) process. In this study, the verification of the corrosion inhibitors, one of the Cu CMP slurry components, was conducted to find out the tendency regarding the carboxyl and amino functional group in neutral environment. Through the results of etch rate, removal rate, and chemical ability of corrosion inhibitors based on 1H-1,2,4-triazole as the base-corrosion inhibitor, while the amine functional group presents high Cu etching ability, carboxyl functional group shows lower Cu etching ability than base-corrosion inhibitor which means that it increases passivation effect by making strong passivation layer. It implies that the corrosion inhibitor with amine functional group was proper to apply for 1st Cu CMP slurry owing to the high etch rate and with carboxyl functional group was favorable for the 2nd Cu CMP slurry due to the high Cu removal rate/dissolution rate ratio.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.12 no.1 s.34
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• pp.41-46
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• 2005

A systematic investigation of shear testing was conducted to find a relationship between Ni-Sn intermetallic spatting and the brittle fracture observed in electroless Ni(P)/solder interconnection. Brittle fracture was found in the solder joints made of Sn-3.5Ag, while only ductile fracture was observed in a Cu-containing solder (Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu). For Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu joints, $(Ni,Cu)_3Sn_4$ and/or $(Cu,Ni)_6Sn_5$ compound were formed at the interface without spatting from the Ni(P) film. For Sn-3.5Ag, $Ni_3Sn_4$ compound was formed and brittle fracture occurred in solder pads where $Ni_3Sn_4$ had spalled. From the analysis of fractured surfaces, it was found that the brittle fracture occurs through the $Ni_3SnP$ layer formed between $Ni_3Sn_4$ intermetallic layer and the Ni(P) film. Since the $Ni_3SnP$ layer is getting thicker during/ after $Ni_3Sn_4$ spatting, suppression of $Ni_3Sn_4$ spatting is crucial to ensure the reliability of Ni(P)/solder system.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.373-378
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• 2003

With increasing environmental concerns, application of lead-free solder and fluxless soldering process have been taken attention from the electronic packaging industry. Plasma treatment is one of the soldering methods for the fluxless soldering, and it can prevent environmental pollution cased by flux. On this study fluxless soldering process under $Ar-H_2$plasma using lead free solders such as Sn-3.5 wt%Ag, Sn-3.5 wt%Ag-0.7 wt%Cu and Sn-37%Pb for a reference was investigated. As the plasma reflow has higher soldering temperature than normal air reflow, the effects of UBM(Under Bump Metallization) thickness on the interfacial reaction and bonding strength can be critical. Experimental results showed in case of the thin UBM, Au(20 nm)/Cu(0.3 $\mu\textrm{m}$)/Ni(0.4 $\mu\textrm{m}$)/Al(0.4 $\mu\textrm{m}$), shear strength of the soldered joint was relatively low as 19-27㎫, and it's caused by the crack observed along the bonded interface. The crack was believed to be produced by the exhaustion of the thin UBM-layer due to the excessive reaction with solder under plasma. However, in case of thick UBM, Au(20 nm)/Cu(4 $\mu\textrm{m}$)/Ni(4 $\mu\textrm{m}$)/Al(0.4 $\mu\textrm{m}$), the bonded interface was sound without any crack and shear strength gives 32∼42㎫. Thus, by increasing UBM thickness in this study the shear strength can be improved to 50∼70%. Fluxed reflow soldering under hot air was also carried out for a reference, and the shear strength was 48∼52㎫. Consequently the fluxless soldering with plasma showed around 65∼80% as those of fluxed air reflow, and the possibility of the $Ar-H_2$ plasma reflow was evaluated.