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Nickel dependence of hydrogen generation, hydrogen co-deposition and film stress in an electroless copper process

Hydrogen co-deposition in electroless copper is a cause of embrittlement, voids and blisters. Hydrogen release in the plating bath and its incorporation into the copper films were measured. The amount of hydrogen in the films was determined by monitoring its release over several days at ambient cond...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Thin solid films 2018-11, Vol.666, p.76-84
Main Authors: Sharma, Tanu, Landry, Alexandre E., Leger, Alexandre, Brown, Delilah A., Bernhard, Tobias, Zarwell, Sebastian, Brüning, Frank, Brüning, Ralf
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Hydrogen co-deposition in electroless copper is a cause of embrittlement, voids and blisters. Hydrogen release in the plating bath and its incorporation into the copper films were measured. The amount of hydrogen in the films was determined by monitoring its release over several days at ambient conditions. The mixed potential and the film stress were recorded during film deposition. Adding nickel ions in the plating bath lowers the mixed potential, and it reduces hydrogen incorporation from about 25 at.% to 0.01 at.%. However, the total amount of hydrogen generated per amount of plated copper remains unchanged. For films plated without nickel, the biaxial stress of the films and their hydrogen content are proportional with 3.2 ± 0.3 MPa/at. % H. •Non-destructive method to measure hydrogen content of thin copper films.•Electroless copper films were plated with different amounts of nickel.•Hydrogen generated during plating is co-plated or released as gas.•Hydrogen content of the copper film decreases with the amount of nickel.•Total amount of hydrogen is independent of the amount of nickel.
ISSN:0040-6090
1879-2731
DOI:10.1016/j.tsf.2018.09.029