Electroplating: an alternative transfer technology in the 20nm range

Abstract Gold electrodeposition is demonstrated to be an alternative method to the lift off technique in the 20nm scale: 15nm narrow electroplated wires are routinely fabricated with an aspect ratio ≈10 using a 200kV electron beam and PMMA as a resist material. Two growth modes are identified as a function of the linewidth. For over 20nm linewidths, thickness variations are in agreement with classical plating models at the pattern scale. In the sub 20nm width range, corresponding to a mass transfer limited regime, growth in the resist nanotrench is shown to be mainly governed by the texture of the plating base associated to an anisotropy of the growth rate in the 〈111〉 direction.