Alchimer seedless wet deposition technology eliminates entire step from TSV film stack process

MASSY, FRANCE: Alchimer S.A., a leading provider of technology for the deposition of nanometric films used in both semiconductor interconnects and 3D through-silicon vias (TSV), today announced a groundbreaking advance in TSV formation that eliminates one of the traditional metallization steps.

By eliminating the seed-layer step from the standard isolation-barrier-seed process flow, Alchimer’s newest product, AquiVia XS, allows bulk fill to take place directly after application of the barrier layer. The new product also is the first deposition solution to support both nickel and copper metallization.

“This addition to the AquiVia product family expands our available market, gives customers valuable, strategic options and widens the cost-of-ownership gap between Alchimer and traditional dry deposition processes.

Our customers in the chipmaking community need to keep up with the rapidly growing demand for vertically integrated devices, and the AquiVia XS approach provides a previously impossible combination of film quality, broad applicability, and cost benefits,” said Alchimer CEO Steve Lerner.

Cost-of-ownership analyses for a typical 5 x 50 µm TSV shows an 80 percent improvement over the traditional dry process stack.

Like AquiVia, AquiVia XS enables the use of existing plating equipment for layer deposition, and completely eliminates all dry processing techniques from TSV metallization. As a result, cost of ownership of the via stack metallization process is reduced by up to 80 percent.

Both products also result in highly conformal and uniform layers for TSVs with aspect ratios of 20:1 and beyond, even on the highly scalloped TSV etch profiles produced by the DRIE/Bosch process.

AquiVia XS is available for immediate demonstration and licensing.