Back to results
US 7,449,098 B1Granted
Method for planar electroplating
AssigneeNovellus Systems, Inc.
InventorsSteven T. Mayer, Jonathan D. Reid, Mark L. Rea, Ismail T. Emesh, Henner W. Meinhold, John S. Drewery
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A disclosed form of mechanically assisted electroplating leads to a flat, thin, overburden. In one example, an accelerator is deposited on a copper surface and mechanically removed in a simplified CMP-like apparatus. The wafer is then plated in an electrolyte containing little or no accelerating additives.
Claims39
A method of planar plating, the method comprising:
- (a) providing a work piece having a surface with recessed regions and exposed regions;
- (b) plating metal onto the work piece under conditions that promote bottom-up fill in high aspect ratio features, whereby recessed regions of the work piece having relatively high aspect ratio are filled with metal, while at least some recessed regions having relatively lower aspect ratio are not substantially filled;
- (c) after (b), causing a plating additive to become attached to the surface selectively in the recessed regions, with relatively little or no plating additive attached to an exposed surface;
- and
- (d) after (c) is at least partially complete, plating the metal onto the surface, whereby the additive selectively attached to the surface increases the rate of metal plating in the recessed regions relative to the rate of metal plating in the exposed regions, wherein (c) and (d) are performed during contact with a first solution and during contact with a second solution, respectively, and wherein the first solution comprises a greater concentration of the additive than the second solution, and wherein plating metal in (b) is performed using a plating solution that is different from the first solution.
2 more elements
A method of planar plating, the method comprising:
- (a) performing a bottom-up fill process on a work piece which results in the work piece having a surface with recessed regions and exposed regions, wherein at least some of the recessed regions have aspect ratios of not greater than about 1;
- (b) after (a), contacting the work piece surface with a first solution having a plating additive, which binds to the surface, wherein the first solution was not used in (a);
- (c) selectively removing the additive from exposed surfaces while leaving a greater concentration of the additive in the recessed regions surface;
- (d) contacting the work piece surface having the additive selectively removed in (c) with a second solution having a lower concentration of the plating additive than is present in the first solution;
- and
- (e) plating a metal from the second solution onto the surface, whereby the plating additive in the recessed regions increases the rate of plating in the recessed regions relative to the exposed regions.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.