• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.411-418
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• 2011

The current study investigates the electroplating characteristics of Sn-Cu eutectic micro-bumps electroplated on a Si chip for flip chip application. Under bump metallization (UBM) layers consisting of Cr, Cu, Ni and Au sequentially from bottom to top with the aim of achieving Sn-Cu bumps $10\times10\times6$ ${\mu}m$ in size, with 20${\mu}m$ pitch. In order to determine optimal plating parameters, the polarization curve, current density and plating time were analyzed. Experimental results showed the equilibrium potential from the Sn-Cu polarization curve is -0.465 V, which is attained when Sn-Cu electro-deposition occurred. The thickness of the electroplated bumps increased with rising current density and plating time up to 20 mA/$cm^2$ and 30 min respectively. The near eutectic composition of the Sn-0.72wt%Cu bump was obtained by plating at 10 mA/$cm^2$ for 20 min, and the bump size at these conditions was $10\times10\times6$ ${\mu}m$. The shear strength of the eutectic Sn-Cu bump was 9.0 gf when the shearing tip height was 50% of the bump height.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.25.1-25.1
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• 2011

Over the past few decades, metallic nanoparticles (NPs) have been of great interest due to their unique mesoscopic properties which distinguish them from those of bulk metals; such as lowered melting points, greater versatility that allows for more ease of processability, and tunable optical and mechanical properties. Due to these unique properties, potential opportunities are seen for applications that incorporate nanomaterials into optical and electronic devices. Specifically, the development of metallic NPs has gained significant interest within the electronics field and technological community as a whole. In this study, gold (Au) pads for surface finish in electronic package were developed by inkjet printing of Au NPs. The microstructures of inkjet-printed Au film were investigated by various thermal treatment conditions. The film showed the grain growth as well as bonding between NPs. The film became denser with pore elimination when NPs were sintered under gas flows of $N_2$-bubbled through formic acid ($FA/N_2$) and $N_2$, which resulted in improvement of electrical conductance. The resistivity of film was 4.79 ${\mu}{\Omega}$-cm, about twice of bulk value. From organic anlayses of FTIR, Raman spectroscopy, and TGA, the amount of organic residue in the film was 0.43% which meant considerable removal of the solvent or organic capping molecules. The solder ball shear test was adopted for solderability and shear strength value was 820 gf (1 gf=9.81 mN) on average. This shear strength is good enough to substitute the inkjet-printed Au nanoparticulate film for electroplating in electronic package.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.135-148
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• 2012

Ionic liquids are steadily attracting interests throughout a recent decade and their application is expanding into various fields including electrochemistry due to their unique properties such as non-volatility, inflammability, low toxicity, good ionic conductivity, wide electrochemical potential window and so on. These features make ionic liquids become an alternative solution for electrodeposition of metals that cannot be electroplated in aqueous electrolytes. In this review, we classify investigated metals into three categories, which are light (Li, Mg), refractory (Ti, Ta) and noble (Pd, Pt, Au) metals, rather than covering the exhaustive list of metals and try to update the recent development in this area. In electrodeposition of light metals, granular fine Li particles were successfully obtained while the passivation of electrodeposited Mg layers is an obstacle to reversible deposition-dissolution process of Mg. In the case of refractory metals, the quality of Ta and Ti deposit particles was effectively improved with addition of LiF and pyrrole, respectively. In noble metal category, EMIM TFSA ionic liquid as an electrolyte for Au electrodeposition was proven to be effective and BMP TFSA ionic liquid developed a smooth Pd deposit. Pt nanoparticle production from ionic liquid droplet in aqueous solution can be cost-effective and display an excellent electrocatalytic activity.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.12 no.3 s.36
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• pp.197-205
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• 2005

Development of the packaging is one of the critical issues for commercialization of the RF-MEMS devices. RF MEMS package should be designed to have small size, hermetic protection, good RF performance and high reliability. In addition, packaging should be conducted at sufficiently low temperature. In this paper, a low temperature hermetic wafer level packaging scheme for the RF-MEMS devices is presented. For hermetic sealing, Au-Sn eutectic bonding technology at the temperature below $300{\times}C$ is used. Au-Sn multilayer metallization with a square loop of $70{\mu}m$ in width is performed. The electrical feed-through is achieved by the vertical through-hole via filled with electroplated Cu. The size of the MEMS Package is $1mm\times1mm\times700{\mu}m$. By applying $O_2$ plasma ashing and fabrication process optimization, we can achieve the void-free structure within the bonding interface as well as via hole. The shear strength and hermeticity of the package satisfy the requirements of MIL-STD-883F. Any organic gases or contamination are not observed inside the package. The total insertion loss for the packaging is 0.075 dB at 2 GHz. Furthermore, the robustness of the package is demonstrated by observing no performance degradation and physical damage of the package after several reliability tests.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.793-796
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• 2005

In this paper, we propose a method which can improve uniformity of a miniaturized electron beam array for inspection of very small pattern with high speed using vertical interconnection. This method enables the individual control of columns so that it can reduce the deviation of beam current, beam size, scan range and so on. The test device that used vertical interconnection method was fabricated by multiple wafer bonding and metal reflow. Two silicon and one glass wafers were bonded and metal interconnection by melting of electroplated AuSn was performed. The contact resistance was under $10{\Omega}$.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.58-64
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• 2006

In this study, we describe a low-temperature wafer-level thermocompression bonding using electroplated gold seal line and bonding pads by electroplating method for RF-MEMS devices. Silicon wafers, electroplated with gold (Au), were completely bonded at $320^{\circ}C$ for 30 min at a pressure of 2.5 MPa. The through-hole interconnection between the packaged devices and external terminal did not need metal filling process and was made by gold films deposited on the sidewall of the throughhole. This process was low-cost and short in duration. Helium leak rate, which is measured to evaluate the reliability of bonded wafers, was $2.7{\pm}0.614{\times}10^{-10}Pam^{3}/s$. The insertion loss of the CPW packaged was $-0.069{\sim}-0.085\;dB$. The difference of the insertion loss between the unpackaged and packaged CPW was less than -0.03. These values show very good RF characteristics of the packaging. Therefore, gold thermocompression bonding can be applied to high quality hermetic wafer level packaging of RF-MEMS devices.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.259-259
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• 2008

The LTCC (Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic) technology meets the requirements for high quality microelectronic devices and microsystems application due to a very good electrical and mechanical properties, high reliability and stability as well as possibility of making integrated three dimensional microstructures. The wet process, which has been applied to the etching of the metallic thin film on the ceramic substrate, has multi process steps such as lithography and development and uses very toxic chemicals arising the environmental problems. The other side, Plasma technology like ion beam sputtering is clean process including surface cleaning and treatment, sputtering and etching of semiconductor devices, and environmental cleanup. In this study, metallic multilayer pattern was fabricated by the ion beam etching of Ti/Pd/Cu without the lithography. In the experiment, Alumina and LTCC were used as the substrate and Ti/Pd/Cu metallic multilayer was deposited by the DC-magnetron sputtering system. After the formation of Cu/Ni/Au multilayer pattern made by the photolithography and electroplating process, the Ti/Pd/Cu multilayer was dry-etched by using the low energy-high current ion-beam etching process. Because the electroplated Au layer was the masking barrier of the etching of Ti/Pd/Cu multilayer, the additional lithography was not necessary for the etching process. Xenon ion beam which having the high sputtering yield was irradiated and was used with various ion energy and current. The metallic pattern after the etching was optically examined and analyzed. The rate and phenomenon of the etching on each metallic layer were investigated with the diverse process condition such as ion-beam acceleration energy, current density, and etching time.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.29-36
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• 2008

In this paper, mechanical reliability issues of copper through-wafer interconnections are investigated numerically and experimentally. A hermetic wafer level packaging for MEMS devices is developed. Au-Sn eutectic bonding technology is used to achieve hermetic sealing, and the vertical through-hole via filled with electroplated copper for the electrical connection is also used. The MEMS package has the size of $1mm{\times}1mm{\times}700{\mu}m$. The robustness of the package is confirmed by several reliability tests. Several factors which could induce via hole cracking failure are investigated such as thermal expansion mismatch, via etch profile, and copper diffusion phenomenon. Alternative electroplating process is suggested for preventing Cu diffusion and increasing the adhesion performance of the electroplating process. After implementing several improvements, reliability tests were performed, and via hole cracking as well as significant changes in the shear strength were not observed. Helium leak testing indicated that the leak rate of the package meets the requirements of MIL-STD-883F specification.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2004.07c
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• pp.1576-1578
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• 2004

The alumina membrane with nano sized pore was prepared from aluminum by anodic oxidation to apply for storage equipment, gas sensor and stamper. The pore size and cell size of the pores are controlled by anodic oxidation voltage. The alumina thickness was controlled by etching process using 0.2M $H_3PO_4$. The thickness of alumina on Si wafer was very accurately controlled by anodic oxidation time. Nickel with nano-sized grain was electroplated on the Au layer on silicon wafer. The fabricated pores on alumina membrane was the thickness of $7{\sim}10{\mu}m$ with straight nano-sized pore of 307${\sim}$120nm. The alumina by the etching process shows smooth surface. The size of Ni grain was 130nm and 250nm for 10mA/$cm^2$and 20mA/$cm^2$of electroplating currents, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.309-317
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• 1992

Evaluation of electroplated gold has been carried out to obtain the data base for electrical, mechanical and environmental properties for telecommunication component applications. Gold plating was performed to a various thickness of $0.1\mu\textrm{m}$ to 1.$25\mu\textrm{m}$ after Ni plating of $3\mu\textrm{m}$ on C52100 bronze. Electrical properties were evaluated by measuring contact resistance using 4-wire method under static contact and dynamic contact during wear. Reciprocating wear test was performed to study the wear behavior as well as failure of gold contacts. Environmental characteristics were evaluated by using salt spray testing and SO2 test. Hardness of soft gold film was measured to be 53KHN under 5g load. Friction coefficient was initially obtained to be 0.15 and 0.25 under 100g and 200g loads respectively, and then raised up to 0.8 with increasing reciprocating wear cycles. Static contact resistance was 2 to 3m$\Omega$ regardless of gold film thickness while drastic changes of contact resistance were occured upon stripping of the gold film during wear. The lifetime of contact wear showing stable contact resistance increased up to 6 times for $1\mu\textrm{m}$ thickness compared to that of$ 0.1\mu\textrm{m}$ thickness under 100g load. All gold plating appeared to be stable under salt atmosphere while only the gold plating over 1$\mu\textrm{m}$ was stable under SO2 atmosphere.