Effects of pattern characteristics on the copper electroplating processt

The non-planarity of a surface post electroplating process is usually dependent on variations of key layout characteristics including line width,line spacing and metal density.A test chip is designed and manufactured in a semiconductor foundry to test the layout dependency of the electroplating process.By checking test data such as field height,array height,step height and SEM photos,some conclusions are made.Line width is a critical factor of topographical shapes such as the step height and height difference.After the electroplating process,the fine line has a thicker copper thickness,while the wide line has the greatest step height.Three typical topographies, conformal-fill,supper-fill and over-fill,are observed.Moreover,quantified effects are found using the test data and explained by theory,which can be used to develop electroplating process modeling and design for manufacturability (DFM) research.