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Morphology Behavior of Copper Films Deposited after Wet Surface Treatment on Polished Alumina

Abstract

In this paper, a pre-treatment process for electroless copper (Cu) deposition on the polished alumina (Al2O3) 99.9% and the behavior of Cu plating by electroless process after Al2O3 surface treatment were explored. Our work was carried out by changing the roughness of Al2O3 through micro-etching (coarsening), nucleation its surface by a two-step method (sensitization and activation) and electroless Cu plating deposited using non-commercial solution having formaldehyde as reducer, alkaline pH and operating temperature of 30 ºC. Contact angle system (CA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), mechanical profilometer (DekTak XT) atomic force microscopy (AFM) and analysis by Gwyddion v2.27 software were used to evaluate the wet treatment and the morphology of the electroless deposition (ED) of Cu on the Al2O3 surface. The results show that the surface treatment of purity polished Al2O3 with 0.1% of vitreous materials present into the substrate surface, presents a high performance in ED film at low temperature (30 ºC), during the Cu deposition, obtaining more compact and uniform film, with small grain size, uniform thickness, and a high purity Cu metallic deposit.

Keywords:
electroless copper deposition; wet surface treatment; surface morphology; alumina; coarsening; nucleation


Introduction

Electroless deposition (ED) of metals and alloys on non-metallic materials such as ceramics, carbon, plastics, polymers, semiconductors and dielectrics are increasing for a wide range of commercial applications.11 Kobayashi, T.; Ishibashi, J.; Mononobe, S.; Ohtsu, M.; Honma, H.; J. Electrochem. Soc. 2000, 147, 1046.

2 Ting, C. H.; Paunovic, M.; Pai, P. L.; Chiu, G.; J. Electrochem. Soc. 1989, 136, 462.

3 Khoperia, T. N.; Tabatadze, T. J.; Zedginidze, T. I.; Electrochim. Acta 1997, 42, 3049.

4 Watanabe, W.; Honma, H.; J. Electrochem. Soc. 1977, 144, 471.

5 Khoperia, T. N.; Zedginidze, T. I.; ECS Trans. 2008, 11, 87.

6 Honma, H.; Koshio, T.; Hotta, S.; Watanabe, H.; Plat. Surf. Finish. 1995, 127, 60.

7 Hsu, H.-H.; Lin, K.-H.; Lin, S.-J.; Yeh, J.-W.; J. Electrochem. Soc. 2001, 148, C47.
-88 Li, J.; O´Keefe, M. J.; O´Keefe, T. J.; Surf. Coat. Technol. 2011, 205, 3134. The process is particularly important in the printed circuit industry.99 Schlesinger, M. In Electroless Deposition on Nickel, Modern Electroplating, 5th ed.; Schlesinger, M.; Paunovic, M., eds.; John Wiley & Sons: Hoboken, New Jersey, 2010, ch. 18, p. 447. For example, polished alumina (Al2O3) has been used as an interconnect substrate onto which a conductive metal layer, such as gold or copper, can be applied88 Li, J.; O´Keefe, M. J.; O´Keefe, T. J.; Surf. Coat. Technol. 2011, 205, 3134. by ED, since it is a low-cost process compared to other methods, such as plasma spraying, physical vapor deposition (PVD) chemical vapor deposition (CVD) or electrodeposition.1010 Natividad, E.; Lataste, E.; Lahaye, M.; Heintz, J. M.; Silvain, J. F.; Surf. Sci. 2004, 557, 129. ED (autocatalytic) plating involves the presence of a chemical reducing agent in solution to reduce metallic ions to the metal state. The name electroless is somewhat misleading, however. There are no external electrodes present, but there is electric current (charge transfer) involved. Instead of an anode, salt supplied the metal. The process takes place only on catalytic surfaces rather than throughout the solution. If the process is not properly controlled, the reduction can take place throughout the solution, possibly on particles of dust or of catalytic metals, with undesirable results like the decomposition of the solution. Autocatalytic plating is defined as the deposition of a metallic coating by a controlled chemical reduction that is catalyzed by the metal or alloy being deposited. Such plating has been used to yield deposits of nickel (Ni), nickel phosphorus (Ni-P), copper (Cu), cobalt (Co), palladium (Pd), silver (Ag) and gold (Au). For Cu electroless deposition, chemical reducing agents have included formaldehyde as the most important (the one originally used by the inventors for Ni and Cu deposition and still the most important and widely investigated).

Among the various engineering ceramics, Al2O3 is one of the most widely used in the engineering materials due to is good mechanical properties, high hardness and low density.1111 Lu, Z. L.; Wang, Z. C.; Luo, L. M.; Huang, M. X.; Tan, Y. X.; Chen, B. J.; Cheng, G. J.; Wu, C. Y.; Surf. Eng. 2015, 31, 240. However in some situations, the toughness, electric conductivity and the thermoconductivity of the ceramic need to be enhanced.1212 Uysal, M.; Karslioglu, R.; Alp, A.; Akbulut, H.; Ceram. Int. 2013, 39, 5485. Electroless Cu films exhibit many advantages such as remarkable electric, magnetic and heat conducting properties.1313 Karthikeyan, S.; Jeeva, A. P.; Narayanan, S.; Srinivasan, N. K.; Hu, X.; Surf. Eng. 2012, 28, 743. However, Al2O3 ceramic shows no affinity to a metal plating and simple physical deposition cannot be effective to complete copper plating on its surface.1414 Guo, H. R.; Jiang, K. S.; Yuen, W. M. C.; Ng, F. C. M.; Surf. Eng. 2009, 25, 101. To reach the required properties of the Cu layer, besides the bulk composition and properties of the Cu materials, the process that occur at the substrate surface before deposition are also important.1515 Osaka, T.; Koiwa, I. T.; Svendsen, G. L.; J. Electrochem. Soc. 1985, 132, 2081. The cleanliness, the chemical composition of the surface, coarsening and the nucleation influence the initiation and the subsequent adhesion, both during and after deposition.1616 Honma, T.; Naito, K.; Takai, M.; Osaka, T.; Yamazaki, Y.; Namikawa, T.; J. Electrochem. Soc. 1991, 138, 1269.,1717 Zhang, C. M.; Kang, T. E.; Neoh, G. K.; Tan, L. K.; J. Electrochem. Soc. 2001, 148, C71.

Coarsening (surface modification) is an important step in the process to obtain a surface with a few nanometers of roughness on a polished alumina. So, it is necessary to carry out a sufficient coarsening to allow the pretreatment process with Sn and Pd deposition. Pre-treatment process of Sn-Pd has been used for decades; however, concerns about the low efficiency and risks of contamination remain unresolved. Many attempts were made to find a single-step catalyzing procedure to replace the two-step method with a more efficient method, such as the Pd-Sn colloidal deposition, noble metal prints, and vacuum deposition methods. Nevertheless, these techniques are either costly or require additional processing steps which reduce the efficiency.88 Li, J.; O´Keefe, M. J.; O´Keefe, T. J.; Surf. Coat. Technol. 2011, 205, 3134.

Many aspects of nucleation on the substrate surface have been investigated.1818 Honma, T.; Yamaguchi, R.; Murao, Y.; J. Electrochem. Soc. 1993, 140, 687. For the nucleation procedure, a one-step and a two-step process have been distinguished.1919 Yamagishi, K.; Okamoto, N.; Mitsumata, M.; Fukumuro, N.; Yae, S.; Matsuma, H.; J. Electrochem. Soc. 2004, 82, 114. For the one-step nucleation, samples are immersed in a SnCl2-PdCl2 colloidal solution.2020 Osaka, T.; Nagasaka, H.; Goto, F.; J. Electrochem. Soc. 1980, 127, 2343.,2121 O’Sullivam, M. J. E.; Horkans, J.; White, R. J.; Roland, M. J.; IBM J. Res. Dev. 1988, 32, 591. In the two-step procedure, substrates are sensitized by immersion in a SnCl2 containing solution and activated with a PdCl2 solution.1010 Natividad, E.; Lataste, E.; Lahaye, M.; Heintz, J. M.; Silvain, J. F.; Surf. Sci. 2004, 557, 129.,1616 Honma, T.; Naito, K.; Takai, M.; Osaka, T.; Yamazaki, Y.; Namikawa, T.; J. Electrochem. Soc. 1991, 138, 1269.,2222 Beygi, H.; Sajjadi, A. S.; Zebarjad, M. S.; Appl. Surf. Sci. 2012, 261, 166.

According to Svendsen et al.,2323 Svendsen, G. L.; Osaka, T.; Sawai, H.; J. Electrochem. Soc. 1983, 130, 2252. the one-step nucleation procedure is not suitable for alumina substrates. This is confirmed by Honma et al.,2424 Honma, H.; Kanemitsu, K.; Plat. Surf. Finish. 1987, 74, 62.,2525 Honma, H.; Kouchi, Y.; J. Electrochem. Soc. 1990, 75, 54. who reported that with a two-step procedure, the adhesion of Cu on alumina is stronger than with a one-step procedure, as measured by the direct pull-off technique.

Generally, three different goals can be distinguished for the pretreatments: first, adsorbed organic contaminations and particles are removed in a cleaning step. Second, by coarsening the substrate, the surface roughness is increased and possible sites for mechanical interlocking are created to improve adhesion. Third, by the nucleation procedure the surface of the substrate was turned catalytic by using the two-step procedure (Sn and Pd) followed by immersion in an accelerator2626 Grunwald, J. J.; Gottesfeld, S.; Laser, D. G.; Plat. Surf. Finish. 1981, 68, 10.

27 Horkans, J.; Kim, J.; McGrath, C.; Romankiw, T. L.; J. Electrochem. Soc. 1987, 134, 300.
-2828 Lung, K.; Jong, S.-C.; Mater. Chem. Phys. 1993, 35, 53. for ED deposition.

Copper is a less noble metal, but many studies2929 Chikouche, I.; Sahari, A.; Zouaoui, A.; Zegadi, A.; Surf. Rev. Lett. 2016, 23, 1550086.,3030 Zang, Z.; Appl. Phys. Lett. 2018, 112, 042106. have considered it as a good candidate for the design of new catalysts, especially because of its very remarkable electric conductivity, good stability and low-cost.

Electroless copper deposition is a promising route to realize copper-based catalysts due to is relatively low-cost, simplicity, low processing temperature, good adherence and the high physicochemical properties of the deposit.3131 Cui, X.; Hutt, D. A.; Conway, P. P.; Thin Solid Films 2012, 520, 6095.

This work reports the effect of the treatment performed on the polycrystalline alumina surface by comparing the contact angle (CA) before and after coarsening. The morphology and roughness of the electroless Cu deposition system performed on the alumina coarsened was studied combining atomic force microscopy (AFM), mechanical profilometer (DekTak XT) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The aim of this study has been, on the one hand, to expand the current knowledge about the process of obtaining a catalytic surface to enable the electroless deposition of Cu on alumina, and on the other, to carry out characterization that can identify the quality of the deposited Cu.

To the best of our knowledge, there have been no previous reports of ED of Cu on polished Al2O3 99.9% using wet treatment. This technique, after micro corrosion, allows nuclear (Sn + Pd) on 0.1% of vitreous material incorporated on the substrate surface and practically does not change the roughness of the treated surface. Considering the sub micrometric dimensions of the Cu grains, it favors the application of the film in high-density circuits with interconnection paths with a few microns lines.

Experimental

Ninety nine point nine percent ADS polished alumina ceramic (CoorsTek, Golden, USA), with dimensions 25.4 × 25.4 × 0.6 mm was used as substrate due to its excellent mechanical properties, low roughness (< 1 µm), excellent corrosion resistance and uniform density (3.87 g cc-1).3232 CoorsTek; Thin-Film Ceramic Substrates Design Guide; 2011, available at https://www.coorstek.com/media/4222/thin-film-ceramic-substrates-design-guide.pdf, accessed in January 2022.
https://www.coorstek.com/media/4222/thin...

Cleaning

Under magnetic agitation, samples were cleaned with H2SO4 (95-97% PA, Merck, Darmstadt, Germany) and nitric acid (62-70% ACS, JT Baker, New Jersey, USA) solution 19:1 (vol%), during 5 min at 60 ºC to remove organic contamination and particles remaining from the fabrication polishing, followed by rinsed in circulation de-ionized (DI) water for 2 min and sonicated for 2 min.

Coarsening

Particles on the alumina surface are activated by coarsening the micron sized Al2O3 particles into NaOH (PA ACS, Dinâmica, Indaiatuba, Brazil) solution then, slowly placed on a heating hot plate and remaining for 10 min at 400 ºC. In the sequence, it was immersed in H2SO4 solution at room temperature and washed with DI water.3333 Honma, H.; Kouchi, Y.; Plat. Surf. Finish. 1990, 35, 54.

Coarsening not only improves the mechanical bonding of the metallic seeds with the substrate, but also improves the wetting of the seeding solution.3434 Browning, M. E. In Surface Engineering, ASM Handbook, vol. 5; Cotell, C. M.; Sprague, J. A.; Smidt Jr., F. A. eds.; ASM: Geauga County, Ohio, USA, 1990, p. 308.

Nucleation

Several methods for surface activation are reported in the literature,1010 Natividad, E.; Lataste, E.; Lahaye, M.; Heintz, J. M.; Silvain, J. F.; Surf. Sci. 2004, 557, 129.,3535 van der Putten, M. T. A.; de Bakker, J.; Fakkink, J. G. L.; J. Electrochem. Soc. 1992, 139, 3475.

36 Ilias, S.; Su, N.; Udo-Aka, I. U.; King, F. G.; Sep. Sci. Technol. 1997, 32, 487.
-3737 Gan, X.; Zhou, K.; Hu, W.; Zhang, D.; Surf. Coat. Technol. 2012, 206, 3405. all based on solutions containing Sn2+ and Pd2+ species. The first bath is referred as the sensitizer stannous chloride solution (SnCl2), while the second bath is referred as the activator palladium solution (PdCl2). The result of the pretreatment sequence is the formation of finely divided palladium nuclei. The formation of the palladium nuclei is believed to be due to a redox reaction taking place between the adsorbed or absorbed stannous ions on the surface (formation of mechanical bonding) and the palladium ions in the activation solution.3636 Ilias, S.; Su, N.; Udo-Aka, I. U.; King, F. G.; Sep. Sci. Technol. 1997, 32, 487. The sensitization and activation step can be described by equation 1, as reported in the literature.2323 Svendsen, G. L.; Osaka, T.; Sawai, H.; J. Electrochem. Soc. 1983, 130, 2252.,3636 Ilias, S.; Su, N.; Udo-Aka, I. U.; King, F. G.; Sep. Sci. Technol. 1997, 32, 487.

37 Gan, X.; Zhou, K.; Hu, W.; Zhang, D.; Surf. Coat. Technol. 2012, 206, 3405.

38 Campos, M. D. C.; Flacker, A.; Vaz, R. A.; Moshkalev, A. S.; Nobrega, O. G. E.; J. Electrochem. Soc. 2011, 158, D330.

39 Volpe, M.; Inguanta, R.; Piazza, S.; Sunseri, C.; Surf. Coat. Technol. 2006, 200, 5800.
-4040 Ozaki, T.; Zhang, Y.; Komaki, M.; Nishimura, C.; Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 2003, 28, 297.

(1)Sn2++Pd2+Sn4++Pd0

The composition of the sensitization and activation solutions is given in Table 1.

Table 1
Composition of sensitization and activation solution

The process of nucleation occurs in only one face (polished). The other face (unpolished) of the pretreated alumina was wrapped after coarsening with insulating tape (3M, Sumaré, Brazil) to prevent sensitization and activation. The alumina substrate was seeded with palladium by being dipped successively in acid SnCl2 solution followed by acid PdCl2 solution at room temperature. Each dip lasted about 15 to 30 s and was followed by washing, using slowly immersion in distilled water for about 15 s between each dip.

After nucleation, the substrate showed a very light brown color and the tape was removed. After activation step, an accelerating operation was performed by dipping the substrate in a 10% NaOH.2929 Chikouche, I.; Sahari, A.; Zouaoui, A.; Zegadi, A.; Surf. Rev. Lett. 2016, 23, 1550086. This solution gave the finest remaining particles, which were almost bare active nuclei.2020 Osaka, T.; Nagasaka, H.; Goto, F.; J. Electrochem. Soc. 1980, 127, 2343.

Electroless

Electroless Cu deposition can be described by two reactions, which occur simultaneously on a catalytic surface, including oxidation reaction of a reducing agent and reducing reaction of Cu ions.4141 Dubin, M. V.; Diamand, S. Y.; Zhao, B.; Vasudev, K. P.; Ting, H. C.; J. Electrochem. Soc. 1997, 144, 898.

The flow of electrons required for the oxidation-reduction reaction is provide by the species present in the solution.1010 Natividad, E.; Lataste, E.; Lahaye, M.; Heintz, J. M.; Silvain, J. F.; Surf. Sci. 2004, 557, 129. The overall reaction of electroless Cu deposition can be described by the equation 2.2222 Beygi, H.; Sajjadi, A. S.; Zebarjad, M. S.; Appl. Surf. Sci. 2012, 261, 166.,4242 Matsuoka, M.; Murai, J.; Iwakura, C.; J. Electrochem. Soc. 1992, 139, 2466.,4343 Dehchar, C.; Chikoouche, I.; Kherrat, R.; Sahari, A.; Zouaoui, A.; Merati, M.; Mater. Lett. 2018, 228, 439.

(2)Cu2++2HCHO+4OH-Cu0+H2+2H2O+2HCOO-

After surface treatment, a non-commercial autocatalytic solution of electroless Cu, similar to that reported by Iacovangelo4444 Iacovangelo, D. C.; J. Electochem. Soc. 1986, 133, 1359. and Baumgartner,4545 Baumgartner, E. C.; Plat. Surf. Finish. 1989, 61, 53. was used (Table 2).

Table 2
Cu bath composition

The deposition was performed at 30 ± 1 ºC, pH adjusted using NaOH to a final value of 12.5 and with stirrer agitation. Under these conditions, the deposition rate is 50 nm min-1. Finally, the substrate was rinsed with DI water and dried using gas nitrogen (N2). Stabilizer and buffer were also added to the plating bath to increase the bath stability and to decrease the surface tension of the solution.

Figure 1 shows the scheme of electroless deposition of Cu onto alumina particles using the surface treatment and ED processes.

Figure 1
Schematic of Cu deposition on the surface alumina particles (adapted from reference 22).

Characterization

Surface wettability of the alumina before and after coarsening was evaluated by a contact angle system model OCA 15 plus (Dataphysics Instruments GmbH, Filderstadt, Germany).

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) (Nanosurf FlexAFM model C3000, Liestal, Switzerland), scanning electron microscopy (SEM-FEG) model Mira 3 x MU from TESCAN (Brno, Czech Republic) used at 5 kV, SEM coupled with Bruker Quantax System energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and profilometer DekTak XT (Bruker, Billerica, USA, scan 500 µm, velocity of 30 s) were used to characterize the Cu thin film.

Results and Discussion

Surface treatment

Seeds for deposition are necessary in the electroless plating of insulator. There are no metallic bonds between the ceramics and copper coating, but unstable mechanical combination. So, coarsening is carried out to increase the micro roughness of the surface and to obtain a hydrophilic substrate in order to acquire good adhesive coatings on the substrate.4646 Ma, H.; Liu, Z.; Wu, L.; Wang, Y.; Wang, X.; Thin Solid Films 2011, 519, 7860.

To have a qualitative assessment of whether there was a change in the behavior on the Al2O3 surface after coarsening, surface wettability was evaluated by a contact angle. Figure 2a showed that the surface of the polished alumina prior to the treatment was very hydrophobic, so the drop of water practically did not spread on the polished alumina surface, unlike the treated alumina surface (Figure 2b) which was quite hydrophilic and where the drop greatly spreads.

Figure 2
Contact angle images of (a) before treatment, (b) after treatment.

This behavior indicates that there was a morphological change on the alumina surface. This change was confirmed by the scanning electron microscopy (Figure 3).

Figure 3
SEM images of polished alumina (a) before treatment and (b) after coarsening. Scale bar 2 µm.

Figure 3 shows the surface morphology of the untreated and pretreated polished alumina. The untreated alumina (Figure 3a) comprises uniform, fused Al2O3 particles with small defects near to 1 µm, which are probably due to the polishing performed in its production. Figure 3b shows the change that occurred after acid-basic coarsening, indicating an increase in roughness. According to Honma and Kanemitsu,2424 Honma, H.; Kanemitsu, K.; Plat. Surf. Finish. 1987, 74, 62. the glass phase of the alumina surface was dissolved by coarsening and polar groups were formed (equation 3):

(3)Si-O-Na+H+Si-OH+Na+

Thus, absorption of the catalyst increases the adhesion strength of metals using ED deposition processes.

Figure 4 shows the roughness measured by a profilometer DekTak XT in two points of the sample (P1 and P2). It is verified that the roughness before treatment (black and green lines) is about 25 nm on the polished alumina surface (99.9%). The roughness of the Al2O3 surface after the treatment (blue and red lines) is in the order of 50 nm. The roughness increase measured on the scan profile confirms the coarsening observed on SEM images on Figure 3 and proposed by Beygi et al.2222 Beygi, H.; Sajjadi, A. S.; Zebarjad, M. S.; Appl. Surf. Sci. 2012, 261, 166. (Figure 1). This increase in roughness (25 nm) is already enough to obtain a catalytic surface with the possibility of adhesion of the Cu to be deposited by the ED process.

Figure 4
Roughness of untreated and treated polished alumina; P1 and P2 are two different areas on the same sample.

Electroless copper deposition

Electroless deposition of Cu is very popular in printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing and Cu plating application for features with critical dimensions in the range of 10 µm.4747 Diamand, S. Y.; Dubin, M. V.; Angyal, M.; Thin Solid Films 1995, 262, 93. Moreover, this process offer several features such as (i) high selectivity; (ii) uniform thickness, particularly for objects with complex geometry; (iii) uniform physical and mechanical properties; (iv) high rate of deposition by tuning the solution composition, pH and temperature for commercial applications; (v) deposition on non-conducting surface, and (vi) very economic cost of tools and materials.4848 Sudagar, J.; Lian, J.; Sha, W.; J. Alloys Compd. 2013, 571, 183.

To understand this process in detail, a few fundamental ideas need to be reviewed. Generally, for any electrochemical deposition process, coating bath plays a key role. In the case of ED, the coating bath consist of metal ions, a reducing agent, a complexing agent, a stabilizer and additives.4949 Ge, J.; Turunen, M. P. K.; Kivilahti, J. K.; J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2003, 41, 623.

The electromechanism of electroless plating is explained by two half reactions: an oxidation half reaction (anodic oxidation of the reducing agent) and a reduction half reaction (cathodic reduction of the metal ions).5050 Paunovic, M.; Plating 1968, 55, 1161. These half reactions are characterized by redox oxidation or reductions reactions electrode potentials. The redox electrode potential related to the Gibbs free energy (∆G) and the rate constant of the electrode (K) and these parameters are used to predict the electrochemical reaction tendency.5151 Oldhan, K. B.; Mayland, J. C.; Fundamentals of Electrochemical Science; Academic Press: New York, 1994. The catalytic activity of the Cu ion promoting oxidation of the reducing agent determines the reduction phenomenon of Cu on the substrate. The ligands developed from chemical reactions can act as accelerators for the deposition process. These complexes facilitate decreasing the reduction potential difference with reducing agents.5252 Ghosh, S.; Thin Solid Films 2019, 669, 641.

Figures 5a and 5b, employed by SEM, showed homogeneous coating over the alumina substrate area with submicron particles of Cu deposited on a smooth rough surface forming a thin nanostructured film.

Figure 5
SEM images 2D of Cu morphology thin film plating Al2O3. Scale: (a) 10 µm and (b) 1 µm.

It can be said that one of the attributions for the Cu film to remain with low roughness and smaller particles is due to the temperature of the solution (30 ºC) during the ED deposition of the Cu film.

The uniformity of the Cu film deposition can be better evaluated in Figure 5a, since the analyzed area is 10 µm, while in Figure 5b, the absence of holes and cracks is better observed because the analyzed area is ten times smaller.

Figure 6a shows the image obtained by AFM of Cu thin film plating Al2O3 containing four-profile lines (Figure 6b) obtained through analysis by Gwyddion v 2.27 software.5353 Gwyddion, version 2.27; Department of Nanometrology, Czech Metrology Institute, Brno, Czech Republic, 2018, available at http://gwyddion.net/, accessed in January 2022.
http://gwyddion.net/,...
The line profile analysis showed an average cluster size of approximately 1 μm. Furthermore, the average roughness (Ra) of 40 nm was also obtained over 10 × 10 μm area (Figure 6a).

Figure 6
(a) AFM image of Cu plating Al2O3. (b) Line profile graphic showing the surface roughness over four different scans. Analysis obtained by Gwyddion free software.5353 Gwyddion, version 2.27; Department of Nanometrology, Czech Metrology Institute, Brno, Czech Republic, 2018, available at http://gwyddion.net/, accessed in January 2022.
http://gwyddion.net/,...

Figure 7a shows the analysis obtained by energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) coupled with SEM for elemental mapping of Cu thin film plated (Figure 7b). Through this analysis we observed the high purity (greater than 87%) of Cu thin film after the surface Al2O3 treatment. In addition, the percentages of Al and O come from the residual reading. On the other way, the percentage of C present in the Cu film (greater than 7%) suggested that during the electrochemical deposition, the chemical reducing agent (HCHO) released C that were incorporated into the Cu plated. As formaldehyde acts directly in the oxi-reduction reaction of copper, it is probably the source of carbon. Natividad et al.1010 Natividad, E.; Lataste, E.; Lahaye, M.; Heintz, J. M.; Silvain, J. F.; Surf. Sci. 2004, 557, 129. performed X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses and suggested the presence of Pd-Cu alloys after the whole plating Cu process. However, Pd is harder to detect by EDS analyses in relation to the other elements.

Figure 7
EDS elemental spectrum and quantification results of electroless Cu deposition over Al2O3 substrate (a), obtained by SEM image 2D of Cu morphology (b).

Figure 8 shows the 3D surface roughness of alumina after coarsening and the Cu thin film deposited analyzed by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Figure 8a showed the top-view image of polished alumina after coarsening in a 5 × 5 µm area and Figure 8b after electroless Cu deposition in a 10 × 10 µm area. Figure 8b shows that de Cu coating is homogeneous and uniform. Figure 8c was taken in an area 2 × 2 µm and shows the absence of cracks and flaws after the Cu plating. The roughness observed on the Al2O3 surface after coated with Cu comes from coarsening. The AFM images of alumina after coarsening and electroless Cu deposited on the alumina at 30 ºC, alkaline pH and using HCHO as reducing agent, complement and confirm the results obtained by SEM-FEG and DekTak-XT equipment’s.

Figure 8
Images of 3D surface roughness of (a) alumina after coarsening in 5 × 5 µm area; (b) and (c) after Cu ED in a 10 × 10 and 2 × 2 µm area, respectively.

Conclusions

In this work, we proposed a surface treatment as low-cost alternative to other more expensive methods, such as chemical vapor deposition (CVD), physical vapor deposition (PVD), plasma spraying or electrodeposition, to obtain a good adherence with metallic film. The four stages treatment process permitted the development of a fully wet Cu deposition process and shows a good alternative to obtain a Cu thin film with low processing cost. The different stages of pretreatment and electroless deposition of Cu on polycrystalline alumina have been studied by means of SEM, EDS, AFM and DekTak XT equipment’s and observed high uniformity, absence of holes, cracks and reduced surface roughness in alumina sample coated whit Cu film.

The surface treatment also showed a high performance in the Cu ED film at low temperature (30 ºC), obtaining more compact and uniform film, with small grain size and a high purity Cu metallic deposit. From the results obtained in this study, we can conclude that the sequence of metallization of high purity and polished Al2O3 substrate (99.9%) was established, based on autocatalytic (electroless) techniques of film deposition.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Assembly, Packaging and System Integration Division (DIMES) and Renato Archer Center for Information Technology (CTI), by the opportunity to use the facilities and equipment. The authors also thank the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) for financial support. The authors are especially grateful to Cristina B. Adamo for her valuable contribution towards the development regarding the treatment of ceramic surfaces between years 2012-2016.

References

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Edited by

Editor handled this article: Rodrigo A. A. Muñoz (Associate)

Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    30 May 2022
  • Date of issue
    2022

History

  • Received
    01 Nov 2021
  • Published
    25 Jan 2022
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