MASSY, FRANCE--(Marketwired - Jun 11, 2013) - Alchimer, S.A., a leading provider of wet deposition technologies for dual damascene, through-silicon vias (TSVs), MEMS and solar, today announced a joint development project with imec to evaluate and implement Copper (Cu) filling solutions for advanced nano-interconnect technologies. The focus will be on Alchimer's Electrografting (eG™) product family that has demonstrated void-free filling on 7nm node devices and allows direct Cu fill on barrier with no seed layer required for damascene processes.
As CMOS scaling creates finer features, market requirements for copper damascene include smaller dimensions (≤16/14 nm) with a thin barrier layer, and thin or no Cu seed layer. Filling processes must be defect/void free to meet reliability specifications, and achieve high yields. Conventional physical vapor deposition (PVD) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) processes are not meeting these requirements. Alchimer's wet deposition technologies are based on a molecular build-up process that breaks through the limitations of dry deposition processes.
"We believe that as the industry moves to smaller technology nodes, performance and cost will drive technology adoption," said Bruno Morel, CEO of Alchimer. "The performance of eG in advanced damascene applications, including single and dual damascene below 20nm, has been very promising both in terms of performance and cost of ownership. Collaborating with imec gives us access to tremendous resources to validate our technology's suitability at 300mm and understand what it would take to get ready for 450mm."
The goal of the JDP is to obtain reliability data and electrical performance for eG wet deposition processes in a 300mm manufacturing environment for sub-22nm technologies. As part of the JDP, the companies will assess the plating chemistry and work to identify the optimal process conditions for 300mm wafer-level advanced damascene plating applications.
About Achimer's eG Fill for Damascene Processes
eG Fill allows for direct copper filling on the barrier, eliminating the need for a seed layer. Additionally, it has proven capable of void-free filling on 7nm node devices for improved yields and performance. Together, these result in very little terminal effect and excellent uniformity.
In addition to being the only solution that meets market requirements for advanced damascene structures, Alchimer's highly scalable wet approach decreases cost of ownership by 25-35 percent compared to conventional dry deposition processes. This is achieved by minimizing the use of costly PVD and CVD step processes, as the process can be performed on legacy tools that require minimal retrofitting. Ultra-conformal layers result in lower overburdens and stable chemistries are mixed on demand prior to use.
About Alchimer
Alchimer, a leading provider of wet deposition technologies for dual damascene, through-silicon vias (TSVs), MEMS and solar, is changing the way people think about metallization processes. Founded in 2001 as a spin-off from the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique (CEA), the company has assembled a team of scientists and engineers who excel in the fields of surface science, chemistry, electrochemistry, physics, materials science and semiconductors. Alchimer's innovations include Electrografting (eG™), a wet, electrochemical-based process that enables the growth of extremely high-quality thin films of various types and Chemicalgrafting (cG™), which is based on the same fundamental mechanisms as Electrografting and is used on semi-conductive substrates.