• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.90-100
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• 2010

Micro-conductive patterns were microfabricated on an insulating substrate ($SiO_2$) surface by a selective electroless nickel plating process in order to investigate the formation of seed layers. To fabricate micro-conductive patterns, a thin layer of metal (Cu.Cr) was deposited in the desired micropattern using laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT). and above this layer, a second layer was plated by selective electroless plating. The LIFT process. which was carried out in multi-scan mode, was used to fabricate micro-conductive patterns via electroless nickel plating. This method helps to improve the deposition process for forming seed patterns on the insulating substrate surface and the electrical conductivity of the resulting patterns. This study analyzes the effect of seed pattern formation by LIFT and key parameters in electroless nickel plating during micro-conductive pattern fabrication. The effects of the process variables on the cross-sectional shape and surface quality of the deposited patterns are examined using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and an optical microscope.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.173-180
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• 1992

The effects of the stabilizing additives such as NaCN, 2-MBT and Thiourea on bath decom-position, plating rate and surface morphology have been studied. Bath stability was increased in the order of an additive-free bath, and NaCN-, 2-MBT-, and Thiourea-stabilized baths. The sta-bilizing effects may be attributed to the stability of Cu(II) -complexes. The plating rate is the re-verse order of the bath stability. Accelerative effect of 2-MBT in proper quantity(0.3mg/$\ell$) may be explained by visualizing it absorbed through benzene ring or sulfur atom on portions of the sub-strates. The strong bond of the complexing part of the molecule to nearby chelated copper ions would tend to accelerate plating by making it easier for the Cu2+ -ligand bond to be broken. Sur-face morphologies of copper deposits depend on the bath additives. Electroless copper deposits from the 2-MBT stabilized baths are finer than the deposits from the NaCN- and Thiourea- stabi-lized baths due to the strong adsorption on the substrates.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.195-205
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• 2001

The surface characteristics of Ti/TiN films coated on sintered stainless steels (SSS) by electron beam physical vapour deposition (EB-PVD) were investigated. Stainless steel compacts containing 2, 4, and 10wt%Cu were prepared by the electroless Cu-plating method, which results in increased homogenization in the alloying powder. The specimens were coated with Ti and TiN with a 1.0$\mu\textrm{m}$ thickness respectively by EB-PVD. The microstructures were investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The corrosion behaviors were investigated using a potentiosat in 0.1 M $H_2$$SO_4$, and 0.1M HCl solutions and the corrosion surface was observed using SEM and XPS. The Ti coated specimens showed rough surface compared to Ti/TiN coated specimens. Ti and Ti/TiN coated SSS revealed a higher corrosion and pitting potential from anodic polarization curves than that of Ti and Ti/TiN uncoated SSS. In addition, Ti/TiN coated SSS containing 10wt% Cu exhibited good resistance to pitting corrosion due to the formation of a dense film on the surface and the decrease in interconnected porosity by electroless coated Cu.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.265-273
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• 2016

The effects of surface modification by nitric acid on the pre-treatment of electroless copper plating were investigated. Copper was electroless-plated on the nitric acid treated graphite activated by a two-step pre-treatment process (sensitization + activation). The chemical state and relative quantities of the various surface species were determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) after nitric acid modification or pre-treatment. The acid treatment increased the surface roughness of the graphite due to deep and fine pores and introduced the oxygen-containing functional groups (-COOH and O-C=O) on the surface of graphite. In the pre-treatment step, the high roughness and many functional groups on the nitric acid treated graphite promoted the adsorption of Sn and Pd ions, leading to the uniform adsorption of catalyst ($Pd^0$) for Cu deposition. In the early stage of electroless plating, a lot of tiny copper particles were formed on the whole surface of acid treated graphite and then homogeneous copper film with low variation in thickness was formed after 30 min.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.15-16
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• 2008

In case manufacturing COF, through hole should be made to be used for a pathway connecting the conductive layers of its both faces. In case Cu-plating inside of through hole with electroless plating way, contact between Cu and PI film gets bad to be fell apart from PI by the impact of applying to the electric devices. Therefore, after sputtering is applying on inner through hole, then a method to perform electroplating process. In this study, after changing sputtering condition to manufacture FCCL, we looked the changeability of the upper PI and inner hole Cu layers. Making use of RF Magnetron sputtering equipment, we coated Cu thin film and Cu-plated on it through electroplating. After cold-mounting the completed FCCL, we examined hole section through an optical microscope. From the result of test, with parameters deposition pressure and deposition time, both the thickness of the hole plated layer and PI plated upper layer increased at regular rate, increasing the thickness of Cu sputter layer. However, from the result of test in increasing RF-power, we could know the increment rate of hole plated layer is considerably greater than that of PI plated upper layer. Therefore, we finally acquired good result; if you want only to increase the plated layer of inner hole, it's much better to increase RF-power.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.221-226
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• 2008

Silver coated copper composite powders were prepared by electroless plating method by controlling the activation and deposition process variables such as feeding rate of silver ions solution, concentration of reductant and molar ratio of activation solution $(NH_4OH/(NH_4)_2SO_4)$ at room temperature. The characteristics of the product were verified by using a scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic absorption (A.A.). It is noted that completely cleansing the copper oxide layers and protecting the copper particles surface from hydrolysis were important to obtain high quality Ag-Cu composite powders. The optimum conditions of Ag-Cu composite powder synthesis were $NH_4OH/(NH_4)_2SO_4$ molar ratio 4, concentration of reductant 15g/l and feeding rate of silver ions solution 2 ml/min.

• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.217-221
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• 2015

Developing a metallization that has low cost and high efficiency is essential in solar-cell industries, to replace expensive silver-based metallization. Ni/Cu two-step metallization is one way to reduce the cost of solar cells, because the price of copper is about 100 times less than that of silver. Alkaline electroless plating was used for depositing nickel seed layers on the front electrode area. Prior to the nickel deposition process, 2% HF solution was used to remove native oxide, which disturbs uniform nickel plating. In the subsequent step, a nickel sintering process was carried out in $N_2$ gas atmosphere; however, copper was plated by light-induced plating (LIP). Plated nickel has different properties under different bath conditions because nickel electroless plating is a completely chemical process. In this paper, plating bath conditions such as pH and temperature were varied, and the metal layer's structure was analyzed to investigate the adhesion of Ni/Cu metallization. Average adhesion values in the range of 0.2-0.49 N/mm were achieved for samples with no nickel sintering process.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.11 no.2 s.31
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• pp.11-16
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• 2004

Electronic devices are getting smaller due to integration of electronic chip, and heat generated in electronic devices can cause loss of performance and/or reliability of the devices. In this research, metals such as gold, nickel and copper are plated onto a porous membrane by electroless plating method to make an efficient micro-heatsinks. Electroless plating includes sensitization and activation steps in pre-treatment steps. A polycarbonate(PC) membrane was sensitizied, activated and deposited in each metal solution for plating. Among manufactured microfibrils, heat transfer and radiation properties of Ni-microfibril with high surface area were more effective than those of $Au^-$ and Cu-microfibril.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.633-637
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• 2007

Electroless plating of Co-alloy thin films as capping layers for Cu interconnection has been investigated using alkali-free precursors such as $(NH_4)_2Co(SO_4)_2{\cdot}6H_2O$, $(NH_4)_2WO_4$, $(NH_4)H_2PO_4$, etc. The characteristics of the Co-alloy thin films were discussed by analyses of the effects of pH, Co-precursor concentration, and deposition temperature on the thickness and surface morphology of the films. The thickness of the Co-alloy thin films increased with increasing pH, Co-precursor concentration, and deposition temperature, similarly to the results of electroless plating of Co-alloy thin films using alkali-containing chemicals. The SEM images of the surface of the Co-alloy thin films showed that the proper ranges of pH and deposition temperature were 8.5~9.5 and $75{\sim}85^{\circ}C$, respectively. This work found a feasibility that Co-alloy thin films as capping layers for Cu interconnection could be electroless plated using alkali-free chemicals.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.61-67
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• 2009

Electrolessly deposited Co (Re,P) was investigated as a possible capping layer for Cu wires. 50 nm Co (Re,P) films were deposited on Cu/Ti-coated silicon wafers which acted as a catalytic seed and an adhesion layer, respectively. To obtain the optimized bath composition, electroless deposition was studied through an electrochemical approach via a linear sweep voltammetry analysis. The results of using this method showed that the best deposition conditions were a $CoSO_4$ concentration of 0.082 mol/l, a solution pH of 9, a $KReO_4$ concentration of 0.0003 mol/l and sodium hypophosphite concentration of 0.1 mol/L at $80^{\circ}C$. The thermal stability of the Co (Re,P) layer as a barrier preventing Cu was evaluated using Auger electron spectroscopy and a Scanning calorimeter. The measurement results showed that Re impurities stabilized the h.c.p. phase up to $550^{\circ}C$ and that the Co (Re,P) film efficiently blocked Cu diffusion under an annealing temperature of $400^{\circ}C$ for 1hr. The good barrier properties that were observed can be explained by the nano-sized grains along with the blocking effect of the impurities at the fast diffusion path of the grain boundaries. The transformation temperature from the amorphous to crystal structure is increased by doping the Re.