US 6,280,602 B1Granted

Method and apparatus for determination of additives in metal plating baths

AssigneeAdvanced Technology Materials, Inc.

InventorPeter M. Robertson

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Abstract

An apparatus and method for the indirect determination of concentrations of additives in metal plating electrolyte solutions, particularly organic additives in Cu-metalization baths for semiconductor manufacturing. The apparatus features a reference electrode housed in an electrically isolated chamber and continuously immersed in the base metal plating solution (without the additive to be measured). An additive concentration determination method comprises electroplating a test electrode at a constant or known current in a mixing chamber wherein the base metal plating solution is mixed with small volumes of the sample and various calibration solutions containing the additive to be measured. Plating potentials between the electrodes are measured and plotted for each of the solution mixtures, and data are extrapolated to determine the concentration of the additive in the sample. A multi-cycle method determines the concentration of both accelerator and suppressor organic additives in Cu plating solution in a single test suite.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A method of measuring a characteristic decisive potential of a mixed metal plating solution by performing a plating/measuring cycle, comprising:

providing an apparatus
for determining the concentration of additives in a metal plating bath, comprising:
a reference electrode, housed in an electrically isolated reference chamber and immersed in a base metal plating solution;
a test electrode having a plating surface upon which metal is depositable by electroplating, disposed in a measurement chamber containing an electroplating current source electrode, wherein metal plating solutions containing known and unknown concentrations of additives are introduced to, and intermixed with, the base metal plating solution;
a capillary tube joining the reference chamber and the mixing chamber in unidirectional fluid flow relationship, having a reference chamber end deposed in the reference chamber and a mixing chamber end deposed in the mixing chamber, whereby base metal plating solution is transfered to the measurement chamber from the reference chamber, and wherein the measurement chamber end of the capillary tube is disposed in close spatial relationship to the plating surface of the test electrode:
selectively controllable electroplate driving electronics electrically and operatively coupled between the test electrode and the electroplating current source electrode, whereby metal is selectively deposited onto the test electrode from the mixed metal plating solution in the mixing chamber at a constant or known current density;
and
electrical potential measuring circuitry electrically and operatively coupled between the test electrode and the reference electrode, whereby electrical potential between the electrodes is measured and recorded.
cleaning the test electrode and measuring chamber;
flowing a first known volume of base metal plating solution without a component of interest from the reference chamber through the capillary tube into the measurement chamber;
optionally adding to the measuring chamber a second known volume of metal plating solution containing a predetermined or unknown concentration of the component of interest and mixing the solutions;
allowing the test electrode to come to an equilibrium state in the mixed metal plating solution, such that there exists no electrical potential between the reference electrode and the test electrode;
depositing metal onto the test electrode from the mixed metal plating solution in the mixing chamber by electroplating at a constant or known current density;
measuring and recording the decisive electrical potential between the reference electrode and the test electrode at a selected time after initiation of the plating step, whereby sufficient stability has been reached;
and
stripping the deposited metal from the test electrode.

13 more elements

A Pulsed Cyclic Galvanostatic Analysis method of calculating the concentration of a component of interest in a sample of metal plating solution, comprising the steps of:

preparing a basis metal plating solution which contains all components of the sample plating solution to be measured, except the component of interest, or optionally to which has been added a known volume of the component of interest;
preparing a plurality of calibration solutions, each of which contains the component of interest in a unique, known concentration in excess of that which would be expected in the sample solution;
performing a plating/measuring cycle in the basis solution, and measuring the decisive potential characteristic of the basis solution;
adding a measured amount of the sample solution to a known volume of the basis solution, performing a plating/measuring cycle in the mixed solution, and measuring the decisive potential characteristic of the mixed solution;
adding a measured amount of the first calibration solution to the same volume of fresh basis solution, performing a plating/measuring cycle in the mixed solution, and measuring the decisive potential of the mixed solution;
repeating the above step for each calibration solution, measuring the decisive potential of each;
and
plotting the reciprocals of the decisive potentials measured on a reciprocal concentration scale, and performing a linear extrapolation back to the basis measurement to obtain the negative reciprocal of the sample concentration of the component of interest.

5 more elements

A method of measuring the concentrations of both an accelerator organic additive and a suppressor organic additive in a sample of copper-metal semiconductor plating electrolyte solution, comprising the steps of:

(a) performing a plating/measuring cycle in a base copper plating electrolyte solution which contains all of the components of the sample copper plating solution to be measured, with the exception of the accelerator and suppressor organic additives or optionally containing a known volume of suppressor organic, to obtain a characteristic decisive potential, which is the background measurement for the suppressor additive concentration determination;
(b) adding an amount of sample copper plating solution to a known fixed volume of base copper plating solution, and performing a plating/measuring cycle in the mixed solution, to obtain a characteristic decisive potential thereof;
(c) adding a first standard addition of suppressor additive to the same volume of fresh base copper plating solution, and perform a plating/measuring cycle in the mixed solution to obtain a characteristic decisive potential thereof;
(d) repeating step (c) for each unique standard addition of suppressor additive, measuring the characteristic decisive potential of the resulting mixed solution;
(e) adding an excess amount of suppressor additive to the same volume of fresh base metal plating solution, and performing a plating/measuring cycle in the mixed solution, to obtain a characteristic decisive potential, which is the background measurement for the accelerator additive concentration determination;
(f) adding an amount of sample in excess of that utilized in step (b) to the same volume of base copper plating solution containing the excess of suppressor additive, and performing a plating/measuring cycle in the mixed solution to obtain a characteristic decisive potential;
(g) adding a first standard addition of accelerator additive to the same volume of base copper plating solution containing the excess of suppressor additive, and performing a plating/measuring cycle in the mixed solution to obtain a characteristic decisive potential;
(h) repeating step (g) for each unique standard addition of accelerator additive, measuring the characteristic decisive potential of the resulting mixed solution.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.