Elie H. Najjar

Electroplating through holes with different geometry -- A novel and high productivity process for through hole fill plating

A novel DC through hole filling process was formulated for high volume HDI and substrate core layer metallization production. The process yields high quality results over a wide current density range.

Next Generation Electroplating Process for HDI Microvia Filling and Through Hole Plating

As higher and higher pin-count semiconductor packages are deployed in telecommunications and data processing applications, Printed Circuit Board (PCB) substrates must evolve to allow increased routing densities. To be capable of meeting these routing density and complexity needs, higher layer counts must be combined with filled microvias. High Density Interconnect (HDI) product of this type places significant new demands on the metallization processes, in particular, copper electroplating. To meet these needs, seemingly incompatible objectives must be met. Thinner and more uniform surface copper deposits have to be produced, increasingly difficult microvia geometries must be filled, through-hole throwing power delivered, while maintaining plating rates capable of delivering production throughputs. These demands often exceed the capability of current commercial copper electroplating processes. This paper describes a new pattern-plate, Direct Current (DC) copper electroplating process designed for HDI and packaging substrate applications. Microvia filling performance, plated through hole throwing power, surface distribution / trace profile and product reliability data, as a function of a variety of processing variables is discussed.

Advanced thin copper electroplating process for HDI microvia filling application

Electrolytic copper microvia filling is an enabling technology, prominently used in todays manufacture of high density interconnect (HDI) and packaging substrate applications for better reliability, increased circuit densification, design flexibility and thermal management. To meet these needs, seemingly incompatible objectives must be met. Thinner and more uniform surface copper deposits have to be produced; increasingly difficult microvia geometries must be filled, while maintaining plating rates capable of delivering production throughputs. This paper describes a new panel and pattern-plate, direct current (DC) copper electroplating process designed for packaging substrate and HDI applications. Microvia filling performance, surface distribution and product reliability as a function of a variety of physical processing variables is discussed.

Electroplating equipment design considerations for copper microvia filling

Electrolytic copper microvia filling is an enabling technology, prominently used in todays manufacture of advanced HDI and packaging substrate product. In the high volume mass production of copper filled microvias, a wide variety of electroplating equipment designs are available to the fabricator. In this article, various aspects of electroplating equipment design used in the mass production of copper filled microvias are discussed, including a comparison of continuous and batch systems, anode materials, solution delivery (convection), and copper replenishment. The impacts of these variables on microvia filling performance, plated through hole throwing power, surface distribution, trace profile and bath life are described.