• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.79-84
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• 2014

To investigate the plating properties of a diethylene glycol-based Ag immersion plating solution containing citric acid, silver immersion plating was performed in a range from room temperature to $50^{\circ}C$ using sputtered Cu specimens. The used Cu specimens possessed surface structure with large numbers of pinholes which were created with over-acid etching. The Ag immersion plating performed at $40^{\circ}C$ exhibited that the pinholes and copper surface were completely filled with Ag just after 5 min mainly due to galvanic displacement reaction, indicating the best plating properties. Subsequently, the surface morphology of Ag-coated Cu became rougher as the plating time increased to 30 min because of the deposition of silver nanoparticles created by chemical reduction in the solution. The specimen that its overall surface was covered with silver indicated the start of oxidation at temperature higher than around $50^{\circ}C$ in air as compared with pure Cu, indicating enhanced anti-oxidation properties.