• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.126-126
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• 2005

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.38-46
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• 2023

Optical Fourier-domain reflectometry (OFDR) sensors have been widely used to measure distances with high resolution and speed in a noncontact state. In the electroplating process of a printed circuit board, it is critically important to monitor the copper-plating thickness, as small deviations can lead to defects, such as an open or short circuit. In this paper we employ a phase-based OFDR sensor for in situ relative distance sensing of a sample with nanometer-scale resolution, during electroplating. We also develop an optical-path difference (OPD)-regulated sensing probe that can maintain a preset distance from the sample. This function can markedly facilitate practical measurements in two aspects: Optimal distance setting for high signal-to-noise ratio OFDR sensing, and protection of a fragile probe tip via vertical evasion movement. In a sample with a centimeter-scale structure, a conventional OFDR sensor will probably either bump into the sample or practically out of the detection range of the sensing probe. To address this limitation, a novel OPD-regulated OFDR system is designed by combining the OFDR sensing probe and linear piezo motors with feedback-loop control. By using multiple OFDR sensors, it is possible to effectively monitor copper-plating thickness in situ and uniformize it at various positions.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.198-201
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• 2005

We investigated the effects of organic additives on the properties of nickel-copper thin films prepared by electroplating. Compared with thin films fabricated by pure electrolyte only, the films utilizing organic additives show different crystalline orientations. With no alteration of plating conditions simply adding the organic materials changed the composition of copper and nickel. The concentration of nickel could be varied to $65-95\%$ depending on the species and concentration of the additives. The change of material property has contributed to the increase or decrease of the magnetoresistance.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.37-42
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• 2007

Copper deposition studies have been actively studied since interests on 3D SiP were increased. The defects inside via can be easily formed due to the current density differences on entrance, bottom and wall of via. So far many different additives and current types were discussed and optimized to obtain void-free copper via filling. In this research acid cupric sulfate plating bath containing additives such as PEG, SPS, JGB, PEI and wave current applied electroplating were examined. The size and shape of grain were influenced by the types of organic additives. The cross section of specimen were analyzed by FESEM. When PEI was added, the denser copper deposits were obtained. Electroplaing time was reduced when 2 step via filling was employed.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.250-253
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• 2007

An evaporated Ti/Pd/Ag contact system is most widely used to make high-efficiency silicon solar cells, however, the system is not cost effective due to expensive materials and vacuum techniques. Commercial solar cells with screen-printed contacts formed by using Ag paste suffer from a low fill factor and a high shading loss because of high contact resistance and low aspect ratio. Low-cost Ni and Cu metal contacts have been formed by using electroless plating and electroplating techniques to replace the Ti/Pd/Ag and screen-printed Ag contacts. Ni/Cu alloy is plated on a silicon substrate by electro-deposition of the alloy from an acetate electrolyte solution, and nickel-silicide formation at the interface between the silicon and the nickel enhances stability and reduces the contact resistance. It was, therefore, found that nickel-silicide was suitable for high-efficiency solar cell applications. The Ni contact was formed on the front grid pattern by electroless plating followed by anneal ing at $380{\sim}400^{\circ}C$ for $15{\sim}30$ min at $N_{2}$ gas to allow formation of a nickel-silicide in a tube furnace or a rapid thermal processing(RTP) chamber because nickel is transformed to NiSi at $380{\sim}400^{\circ}C$. The Ni plating solution is composed of a mixture of $NiCl_{2}$ as a main nickel source. Cu was electroplated on the Ni layer by using a light induced plating method. The Cu electroplating solution was made up of a commercially available acid sulfate bath and additives to reduce the stress of the copper layer. The Ni/Cu contact was found to be well suited for high-efficiency solar cells and was successfully formed by using electroless plating and electroplating, which are more cost effective than vacuum evaporation. In this paper, we investigated low-cost Ni/Cu contact formation by electroless and electroplating for crystalline silicon solar cells.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.15-23
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• 1975

Electrodeposition of metals form aqueous solutions (eg, electroplating ) is frequently accompanied, by the discharge of hydrogen ions(in acidic solutions) or water molecules ( in alkaline electrolytes). The atomic hydrogen produced thus may partly diffuse into the interior of the substrate and when this is absorbed by iron/steel substrate, it has detrimental effects on the mechanical properties of the steel, leading to ahydrogen embrittlement. Steels, particularly the high strength steels, are prone to hydrogen embrittlement. In view of the increasing applications of high strength steels in variousindustries, particularly in the aircraft manufacture, there has been renewed interest in the studiesonhydrogen embrittlement during electroplating of metals. In this review, the author summarizes the reports on hydrogen embrittlement during preplating of metals. In this review , the author sumamrizes the hydrogen embrittlement during electroplating of metals. In this review , the author summarizes the reports on hydrogen embrittlement during preplating operations and electroplating of metals like copper, nickel, tin, zinc ,cadimum and chromium. Finally, the effect of degassing by baking to deembrittle the plated high tensile steels and mechanism of hydrogen embrittlement are briefly indicated.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.5-13
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• 1967

Up to this date, numerous methods of analysis of electropling solutions are published. Some, however, need lots of works before reaching final results, or require high technique and special instruments, and also some are unaccurate due to unclearnes of end point. Like our undevelop countries, technicians of electroplating shops are most high school graduates or under, and have not much knowledge on chemistry. Furthermore, those technicians have to control their plating solutions by themselves without having enough analytical laboratory equipment . Therefore, in this paper the simplest, besides accurate method is investigated after comparing numerous methods published. Among the methods of copper determinations from acid and alkaline copper plating baths, EDTA titration method are chosen, due to these methods are the simpest and fastest for the evaluation of metal content, without requirng any special instrument. For acid copper solutions, chelate titrations were accurate enough. Since the end point of titration of chelate method is variable according to the kind of indicators and other metal's coexisitence as well as solution component, many difficulties were encountered from cyanide copper, on the contrary of acid copper bath. PAN , PV, and MX indicators were tried , but it is found that MX is the best. In chyanide solution ,due to cyanide is the masking reagent , elimination of this component is essential , and finally found that elimination CN-by precipitation with AgNO$_3$ solution was the simplest and the most accurate way among others. This method was very accurate for the new plating solutions even coexistence with organic brightners. However used solutions for long months running have to be predetermined the accurate copper value by thiosulfate method form time to time, before chelate titration by means of AgNO$_3$ precipitation. Always some constant deviations will be seen according to the solutions nature. Therefore those deviation values have to be compensated each time.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.71-74
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• 2009

Electroplated Cu is a cost efficient metallization method in microelectronic packaging applications. Typically in 3-D chip staking technology, utilizing through silicon via (TSV), electroplated Cu metallization is inevitable for the throughput as well as reducing the cost of ownership (COO).To achieve a comparable film quality to sputtering or CVD, a pre-cleaning process as well as plating process is crucial. In this research, atmospheric plasma is employed to reduce the usage of chemicals, such as trichloroethylene (TCE) and sodium hydroxide (NaHO), by substituting the chemical assisted organic cleaning process with plasma surface treatment for Cu electroplating. By employing atmospheric plasma treatment, marginally acceptable electroplating and cleaning results are achieved without the use of hazardous chemicals. The experimental results show that the substitution of the chemical process with plasma treatment is plausible from an environmentally friendly aspect. In addition, plasma treatment on immersion Sn/Cu was also performed to find out the solderability of plasma treated Sn/Cu for practical industrial applications.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.61-66
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• 2018

This research scrutinizes the self-annealing characteristics of copper used to metal interconnection for application of DRAM fabrication process. As the time goes after the copper deposited, the grain of copper is growing. It is called self-annealing. We use the electroplating method for copper deposition and estimate two kinds of electroplating chemicals having different organic additives. As the time of self-annealing is elapsed, sheet resistance decreases with logarithmic dependence of time and is finally saturated. The improvement of sheet resistance is approximately 20%. The saturation time of experimental sample is shorter than that of reference sample. We can find that self-annealing is highly efficient in grain growth of copper through the measurement of TEM analysis. The structure of copper grain is similar to the bamboo type useful for current flow. The results of thermal excursion characteristics show that the reliability of self-annealed sample is better than that of sample annealed at higher temperature. The self-annealed sample is not contained in hillock. The self-annealed samples grow until $2{\mu}m$ and develop in [100] direction more favorable for reliability.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.226-231
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• 2000

New types of the micro heat flux sensor are designed and fabricated using SU-8 and Cu electroplating. And then calibrated under convection environment. The thermal path was made by SU-8 structure and electroplated Cu layers. The bottom surface of the micro heat flux sensor receives the heat flux from the wall, Then the heat flows along the Cu layers and drains out to the environment with producing the temperature difference at the upper layer of Cu. By measuring this temperature difference, the heat flux from the wall can be obtained. The temperature difference is measured by thermopile which is composed of Ni-Cr pairs or Al-chromel pairs. The calibration is accomplished under convection environment because it is most frequent situation. The range of the sensitivity is 0.11~2.02$\mu$V/(㎽/$\textrm{cm}^2$) for the various heat flux and Reynolds numbers.