Method and apparatus for plating substrate with copper

• US 6,638,411 B1
• Filed: 01/27/2000
• Issued: 10/28/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Toshiba Memory Corporation (Kioxia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Ebara Corporation, Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Matsuda, Tetsuo, Mishima, Koji, Kaneko, Hisashi, Nagai, Mizuki, Kimizuka, Ryoichi
• Primary Examiner(s): King, Roy
• Assistant Examiner(s): Leader, William T.
• Application Number:
  US09/492,138
• Time in Patent Office: 1,370 Days
• Field of Search: 205/123, 205/157, 205/210, 205/215, 205/216, 205/217, 205/223, 205/296, 205/297, 205/298, 205/917, 205/183, 205/188, 427/299, 427/301, 427/304, 427/404, 427/305, 118/73, 204/227
• US Class Current: 205/210
• CPC Class Codes: C25D 17/001 Apparatus specially adapted for electrolytic coating of wafers, e.g. semiconductors or solar cells
• CPC Class Codes: C25D 5/18 Electroplating using modulated, pulsed or reversing current
• CPC Class Codes: C25D 5/34 Pretreatment of metallic surfaces to be electroplated
• CPC Class Codes: C25D 5/627 Electroplating characterised by the visual appearance of the layers, e.g. colour, brightness or mat appearance
• CPC Class Codes: C25D 7/123 Semiconductors first coated with a seed layer or a conductive layer
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 2203/0392 Pretreatment of metal, e.g. before finish plating, etching improvement of the adhesion between an insulating substrate and a metal by special treatment of the metal H05K3/382
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 2203/122 Organic non-polymeric compounds, e.g. oil, wax, thiol using solvent H05K2203/0783
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 3/22 Secondary treatment of printed circuits H05K3/1283 takes precedence; embedding circuits in grooves by pressure H05K3/107
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 205/917 Treatment of workpiece between coating steps

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for separating out metal copper according to an electroplating of copper using, for example, a solution of copper sulfate to produce copper interconnections on a surface of a substrate. The substrate is brought into contact, at least once, with a processing solution containing at least one of organic substance and sulfur compound which are contained in a plating solution. Thereafter, the substrate is brought into contact with the plating solution to plate the substrate.

Claims

1. A method of plating a substrate, comprising:

bringing a substrate into contact with a processing solution comprising an organic substance which comprises a polyether organic polymer with a molecular weight in the range of 100 to 100,000 and has a concentration range of 10 mg/l to 10 g/l in the processing solution, wherein said bringing of the substrate into contact with the processing solution includes forming a layer of the organic substance on the substrate; and

bringing the substrate into contact with a plating solution including the organic substance so as to plate the substrate, wherein the plating solution is different in composition form the processing solution.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plating solution comprises a copper plating solution for copper plating the substrate.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the plating solution comprises one of a silver plating solution for silver plating the substrate and a gold plating solution for gold plating the substrate.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said bringing the substrate into contact with the plating solution so as to plate the substrate comprises bringing the substrate into contact with the plating solution so as to form a plated film having a final target thickness, said bringing the substrate into contact with the processing solution being conducted before the final target thickness of the plated film is obtained.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said bringing the substrate into contact with the plating solution so as to plate the substrate comprises bringing the substrate into contact with the plating solution so as to form a plated film having a final target thickness, said bringing the substrate into contact with the processing solution being conducted before said bringing the substrate into contact with the plating solution and again being conducted before the final target thickness of the plated film is obtained.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising performing one of removing excess processing solution from the substrate and drying the substrate after said bringing the substrate into contact with the processing solution and before said bringing the substrate into contact with the plating solution.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the processing solution further comprises a sulfur compound, and the plating solution further comprises the same sulfur compound.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the sulfur compound comprises a sulfur compound represented by the following formula:

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said bringing the substrate into contact with the processing solution comprises bringing the substrate into contact with the processing solution for a time period in a range of 3 seconds to 60 seconds.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

interrupting said bringing the substrate into contact with the plating solution after a plated film is formed on the substrate;

etching the plated film formed on the substrate;

bringing the substrate having the etched plated film into contact with the processing solution; and

bringing the substrate into contact with the plating solution so as to continue said plating of the substrate so as to form a film plate having a final target thickness.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said etching comprises one of electrolytic etching and chemical etching.

12. An apparatus for plating a substrate, comprising:

a processing device for bringing a substrate into contact with a processing solution comprising an organic substance which comprises a polyether organic polymer with a molecular weight in the range of 100 to 100,000 and has a concentration range of 10 mg/l to 10 g/l in the processing solution, wherein said processing device is operable to form a layer of said organic substance on the substrate by bringing the substrate into contact with said processing solution; and

a plating device for bringing the substrate into contact with a plating solution including said organic substance so as to plate the substrate, wherein said plating solution is different in composition form said processing solution.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising a drying-removal device for performing at least one of removing excess processing solution from the substrate and drying the substrate prior to plating the substrate.