• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.109-112
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• 2008

The miniaturization of device size and submicron process causes serious problems in conventional metallization due to the solubility of silicon and metal at the interface, such as an increasing contact resistance in the contact hole and interdiffusion between metal and silicon. Moreover, the interaction between Cu and Si is so strong and detrimental to the electrical performance of Si even at temperatures below $200^{\circ}C$. Therefore it is necessary to implement a barrier layer between Cu and Si. So we study W-C-N diffusion barrier for prevent Cu diffusion as a function of $N_2$ gas flow and thermal stability. Especially, we also study the W-C-N diffusion barrier for analyzing the change of lattice constants.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.157-157
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• 2010

Vertical-structure light-emitting diodes (V-LEDs) by laser lift-off (LLO) have been exploited for high-efficiency GaN-based LEDs of solid-state lightings. In V-LEDs, emitted light from active regions is reflected-up from reflective ohmic contacts on p-GaN. Therefore, silver (Ag) is very suitable for reflective contacts due to its high reflectance (>95%) and surface plasmon coupling to visible light emissions. In addition, low contact resistivity has been obtained from Ag-based ohmic contacts annealed in oxygen ambient. However, annealing in oxygen ambient causes Ag to be oxidized and/or agglomerated, leading to degradation in both electrical and optical properties. Therefore, preventing Ag from oxidation and/or agglomeration is a key aspect for high-performance V-LEDs. In this work, we demonstrate the enhanced thermal stability of Ag-based Ohmic contact to p-GaN by reducing the thermal compressive stress. The thermal compressive stress due to the large difference in CTE between GaN ($5.6{\times}10^{-6}/^{\circ}C$) and Ag ($18.9{\times}10^{-6}/^{\circ}C$) accelerate the diffusion of Ag atoms, leading to Ag agglomeration. Therefore, by increasing the additional residual tensile stress in Ag film, the thermal compressive stress could be reduced, resulting in the enhancement of Ag agglomeration resistance. We employ the thin Ni layer in Ag film to form Ni/Ag mutli-layer structure, because the lattice constant of NiO ($4.176\;{\AA}$ is larger than that of Ag ($4.086\;{\AA}$). High-resolution symmetric and asymmetric X-ray diffraction was used to measure the in-plane strain of Ag films. Due to the expansion of lattice constant by oxidation of Ni into NiO layer, Ag layer in Ni/Ag multi-layer structure was tensilely strained after annealing. Based on experimental results, it could be concluded that the reduction of thermal compressive stress by additional tensile stress in Ag film plays a critical role to enhance the thermal stability of Ag-based Ohmic contact to p-GaN.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.53-53
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• 2011

As the dimension of Cu interconnects has continued to reduce, its resistivity is expected to increase at the nanoscale due to increased surface and grain boundary scattering of electrons. To suppress increase of the resistivity in nanoscale interconnects, alloying Cu with other metal elements such as Al, Mn, and Ag is being considered to increase the mean free path of the drifting electrons. The formation of Al alloy with a slight amount of Cu broadly studied in the past. The study of Cu alloy including a very small Al fraction, by contrast, recently began. The formation of Cu-Al alloy is limited in wet chemical bath and was mainly conducted for fundamental studies by sputtering or evaporation system. However, these deposition methods have a limitation in production environment due to poor step coverage in nanoscale Cu metallization. In this work, gap-filling of Cu-Al alloy was conducted by cyclic MOCVD (metal organic chemical vapor deposition), followed by thermal annealing for alloying, which prevented an unwanted chemical reaction between Cu and Al precursors. To achieve filling the Cu-Al alloy into sub-100nm trench without overhang and void formation, furthermore, hydrogen plasma pretreatment of the trench pattern with Ru barrier layer was conducted in order to suppress of Cu nucleation and growth near the entrance area of the nano-scale trench by minimizing adsorption of metal precursors. As a result, superconformal gap-fill of Cu-Al alloy could be achieved successfully in the high aspect ration nanoscale trenches. Examined morphology, microstructure, chemical composition, and electrical properties of superfilled Cu-Al alloy will be discussed in detail.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.523-523
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• 2012

As the wafer geometric requirements continuously complicated and minutes in tens of nanometers, the expectation of real-time add-on sensors for in-situ plasma process monitoring is rapidly increasing. Various industry applications, utilizing plasma impedance monitor (PIM) and optical emission spectroscopy (OES), on etch end point detection, etch chemistry investigation, health monitoring, fault detection and classification, and advanced process control are good examples. However, process monitoring in semiconductor manufacturing industry requires non-invasiveness. The hypothesis behind the optical monitoring of plasma induced ion current is for the monitoring of plasma induced charging damage in non-invasive optical way. In plasma dielectric via etching, the bombardment of reactive ions on exposed conductor patterns may induce electrical current. Induced electrical charge can further flow down to device level, and accumulated charges in the consecutive plasma processes during back-end metallization can create plasma induced charging damage to shift the threshold voltage of device. As a preliminary research for the hypothesis, we performed two phases experiment to measure the plasma induced current in etch environmental condition. We fabricated electrical test circuits to convert induced current to flickering frequency of LED output, and the flickering frequency was measured by high speed optical plasma monitoring system (OPMS) in 10 kHz. Current-frequency calibration was done in offline by applying stepwise current increase while LED flickering was measured. Once the performance of the test circuits was evaluated, a metal pad for collecting ion bombardment during plasma etch condition was placed inside etch chamber, and the LED output frequency was measured in real-time. It was successful to acquire high speed optical emission data acquisition in 10 kHz. Offline measurement with the test circuitry was satisfactory, and we are continuously investigating the potential of real-time in-situ plasma induce current measurement via OPMS.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.233-237
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• 2015

Silicon oxynitride that can be deposited two times faster than general SiNx:H layer was applied to fabricate the passivation protection layer of atomic layer deposition (ALD) $Al_2O_3$. The protection layer is deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition to protect $Al_2O_3$ passivation layer from a high temperature metallization process for contact firing in screen-printed silicon solar cell. In this study, we studied passivation performance of ALD $Al_2O_3$ film as functions of process temperature and RF plasma effect in plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition system. $Al_2O_3$/SiON stacks coated at $400^{\circ}C$ showed higher lifetime values in the as-stacked state. In contrast, a high quality $Al_2O_3$/SiON stack was obtained with a plasma power of 400 W and a capping-deposition temperature of $200^{\circ}C$ after the firing process. The best lifetime was achieved with stack films fired at $850^{\circ}C$. These results demonstrated the potential of the $Al_2O_3/SiON$ passivated layer for crystalline silicon solar cells.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.373-378
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• 2003

With increasing environmental concerns, application of lead-free solder and fluxless soldering process have been taken attention from the electronic packaging industry. Plasma treatment is one of the soldering methods for the fluxless soldering, and it can prevent environmental pollution cased by flux. On this study fluxless soldering process under $Ar-H_2$plasma using lead free solders such as Sn-3.5 wt%Ag, Sn-3.5 wt%Ag-0.7 wt%Cu and Sn-37%Pb for a reference was investigated. As the plasma reflow has higher soldering temperature than normal air reflow, the effects of UBM(Under Bump Metallization) thickness on the interfacial reaction and bonding strength can be critical. Experimental results showed in case of the thin UBM, Au(20 nm)/Cu(0.3 $\mu\textrm{m}$)/Ni(0.4 $\mu\textrm{m}$)/Al(0.4 $\mu\textrm{m}$), shear strength of the soldered joint was relatively low as 19-27㎫, and it's caused by the crack observed along the bonded interface. The crack was believed to be produced by the exhaustion of the thin UBM-layer due to the excessive reaction with solder under plasma. However, in case of thick UBM, Au(20 nm)/Cu(4 $\mu\textrm{m}$)/Ni(4 $\mu\textrm{m}$)/Al(0.4 $\mu\textrm{m}$), the bonded interface was sound without any crack and shear strength gives 32∼42㎫. Thus, by increasing UBM thickness in this study the shear strength can be improved to 50∼70%. Fluxed reflow soldering under hot air was also carried out for a reference, and the shear strength was 48∼52㎫. Consequently the fluxless soldering with plasma showed around 65∼80% as those of fluxed air reflow, and the possibility of the $Ar-H_2$ plasma reflow was evaluated.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.23 no.11
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• pp.661-665
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• 2013

We investigated the characteristics of electroless plated Cu films on screen printed Ag/Anodized Al substrate. Cu plating was attempted using neutral electroless plating processes to minimize damage of the anodized Al substrate; this method used sodium hypophosphite instead of formaldehyde as a reducing agent. The basic electroless solution consisted of $CuSO_4{\cdot}5H_2O$ as the main metal source, $NaH_2PO_2{\cdot}H_2O$ as the reducing agent, $C_6H_5Na_3O_7{\cdot}2H_2O$ and $NH_4Cl$ as the complex agents, and $NiSO_4{\cdot}6H_2O$ as the catalyser for the oxidation of the reducing agent, dissolved in deionized water. The pH of the Cu plating solutions was adjusted using $NH_4OH$. According to the variation of pH in the range of 6.5~8, the electroless plated Cu films were coated on screen printed Ag pattern/anodized Al/Al at $70^{\circ}C$. We investigated the surface morphology change of the Cu films using FE-SEM (Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy). The chemical composition of the Cu film was determined using XPS (X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy). The crystal structures of the Cu films were investigated using XRD (X-ray Diffraction). Using electroless plating at pH 7, the structures of the plated Cu-rich films were typical fcc-Cu; however, a slight Ni component was co-deposited. Finally, we found that the formation of Cu film plated selectively on PCB without any lithography is possible using a neutral electroless plating process.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.118-123
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• 2018

5 nm-thick $SiO_2$ layers formed by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) are densified to improve the electrical and interface properties by using nitric acid oxidation of Si (NAOS) method at a low temperature of $121^{\circ}C$. The physical and electrical properties are clearly investigated according to NAOS times and post-metallization annealing (PMA) at $250^{\circ}C$ for 10 min in 5 vol% hydrogen atmosphere. The leakage current density is significantly decreased about three orders of magnitude from $3.110{\times}10^{-5}A/cm^2$ after NAOS 5 hours with PMA treatment, although the $SiO_2$ layers are not changed. These dramatically decreases of leakage current density are resulted from improvement of the interface properties. Concentration of suboxide species ($Si^{1+}$, $Si^{2+}$ and $Si^{3+}$) in $SiO_x$ transition layers as well as the interface state density ($D_{it}$) in $SiO_2/Si$ interface region are critically decreased about 1/3 and one order of magnitude, respectively. The decrease in leakage current density is attributed to improvement of interface properties though chemical method of NAOS with PMA treatment which can perform the oxidation and remove the OH species and dangling bond.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.10-15
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• 2016

In this paper, novel ball grid array (BGA) interconnection process using solderable anisotropic conductive adhesives (SACAs) with low-melting-point alloy (LMPA) fillers have been developed to enhance the processability in the conventional capillary underfill technique and to overcome the limitations in the no-flow underfill technique. To confirm the feasibility of the proposed technique, BGA interconnection test was performed using two types of SACA with different LMPA concentration (0 and 4 vol%). After the interconnection process, the interconnection characteristics such as morphology of conduction path and electrical properties of BGA assemblies were inspected and compared. The results indicated that BGA assemblies using SACA without LMPA fillers showed weak conduction path formation such as solder bump loss or short circuit formation because of the expansion of air bubbles within the interconnection area due to the relatively high reflow peak temperature. Meanwhile, assemblies using SACA with 4 vol% LMPAs showed stable metallurgical interconnection formation and electrical resistance due to the favorable selective wetting behavior of molten LMPAs for the solder bump and Cu metallization.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.147-153
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• 1998

Tungsten nitride is very attractive as absorber for X-ray lithographic mask and as a diffusion barrier for interconnecting metallization in Si VLSI technology. Microstructure of tungsten nitride films prepared by RF magnetron sputtering has been investigated as a function of deposition parameter. The crystal structure of sputtered films on silicon nitride membrane depends strongly on the NJAr gas flow ratio(0~18%1, gas pressure(l0~43mTorr). RF power (60~150W), target-substrate distance(4~8cm). Tungsten nitride films deposited at the $N_2/Ar$ gas flow ratio(- 10%). gas pressure(~10mmTorr), RF power(~150W) and target-substrate distance(6cm) are amorphous, but at other conditions are almost rough -surfaced polycrystalline. Amorphous films are very smooth($3.1\AA$ rms) and expected to be excellent absorber for X-ray mask.