Apparatus for an inert anode plating cell
AssigneeLam Research Corporation
InventorsGregory Kearns, Bryan L. Buckalew, Jacob Kurtis Blickensderfer
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In one example, an electroplating apparatus is provided for electroplating a wafer. The electroplating apparatus comprises a wafer holder for holding a wafer during an electroplating operation and a plating cell configured to contain an electrolyte during the electroplating operation. An anode chamber is disposed within the plating cell, and a charge plate is disposed within the anode chamber. An anode is positioned above the charge plate within the anode chamber. In some examples, the anode chamber is a membrane-less anode chamber.
Claims19
An electroplating apparatus for electroplating a wafer, the electroplating apparatus comprising:
- a wafer holder for holding a wafer during an electroplating operation;
- a plating cell configured to contain an electrolyte during the electroplating operation;
- an anode chamber disposed within the plating cell;
- a charge plate disposed within the anode chamber;
- and
- an anode positioned above the charge plate within the anode chamber.
An electroplating method comprising:
- passing an electrolyte solution though an electroplating apparatus, the electroplating apparatus comprising:
- a wafer holder for holding a wafer during an electroplating operation, and
- a plating cell configured to contain the electrolyte solution during the electroplating operation;
- providing a membrane-less anode chamber disposed within the plating cell;
- and
- energising an anode disposed within the membrane-less anode chamber during the electroplating operation.
A machine-readable medium including instructions which, when read by a machine, cause the machine to control operations in an electroplating method, the electroplating method comprising, at least:
- passing electrolyte solution though an electroplating apparatus, the electroplating apparatus comprising:
- a wafer holder for holding a wafer during an electroplating operation,
- a plating cell configured to contain the electrolyte solution during the electroplating operation, and
- a membrane-less anode chamber disposed within the plating cell;
- and
- energising an anode disposed within the membrane-less anode chamber during the electroplating operation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.