Electroless Copper Deposition with PEG Suppression for All-Copper Flip-Chip Connections

Abstract

A fabrication technique using electroless copper deposition has been used to produce all-copper chip-to-substrate connections. This process replaces solder by electrolessly joining copper pillars on a chip and substrate. Previously, solid copper-to-copper bonding was demonstrated using a known electroless copper bath followed by low temperature annealing at for 1 h in a nitrogen environment. Although the process feasibility was demonstrated, it was inherently slow and required excessive process time. In this paper, an acceleration-suppression approach to copper plating was used to achieve a rapid deposition of high quality copper in enclosed regions. Elevated temperature was used for acceleration along with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) suppression. High temperature increased the transport of reactants and products in spatially restricted regions, and the addition of PEG provided control of the deposition rate. This allowed a kinetically controlled deposition while still maintaining good quality copper deposits without excessive porosity. Plating rates as high in the spatially restricted region between mated pillars were achieved.