Several R&D agreements have been signed by Atotech, Germany and Case Western Reserve University to enter jointly the metallization chemistry research and material science characterization for electro-less metallization of advanced semiconductor applications with structures used at and below 22 nm nodes.

The established agreements with the department of Chemical Engineering and the department of Material Science and Engineering will further strengthen Atotech's chemistry and analytical capabilities on the nano-scale engineering side and is also an extension of the semiconductor chemistry R&D activities performed at the College of Nano-scale Science and engineering in Albany, NY, USA since 2007.

The R&D agreement includes the development and optimization of electro-less metallization technology solutions, which includes the definition of chemistry purity, the development of advanced material specifications, optimized chemistry formulations and composites, process monitoring and a defined best mode of operation.

Several chemistries are already in volume production and in use for other applications and will act as bench mark materials to the new tailored advanced semiconductor chemistries, developed at CWRU.

Chemistries are used to deposit copper, copper-alloys or other metal composites to fill structures such as vias and trenches. The requirements are driven by the needs to meet electrical- topographical- and reliability- requirements. For advanced semiconductors the R&D focus on solutions for advanced liner-, barrier-, seed-, fill- and capping- solutions in geometries associated with 22 nm and smaller node requirements.

The research teams are scientists and students from CWRU jointly with local scientists from Atotech and supported from Atotech's R&D center in Berlin.

The material science department at CWRU will contribute to the R&D activities with several high resolution material science instruments and with significant skills and experience in material sample preparation on the nano-scale characterization of the deposited metals in the different structures.

This material science feedback complements electrical- and chemical- testing and will provide additional data to support a fast and sustainable chemistry- and process- development.

The goal is to combine electro-less plating research with material science- and electrical- characterization, which allows to optimize material properties in an early stage of the development cycle and also shorten the time for implementation at a user site associated with a low process risk management.

This new collaboration, which is an extension of the successful R&D collaborations between the Electrochemical Research group of Professor Dr. Uziel Landau at Case and Atotech since 2006 is a logical extension based on future metallization technology requirements.

The additional R&D activities will also extend the electrolytic deposition chemistry research at the 'College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering' in Albany which was also extended end of last year for the years to come.

Both agreements addresses the continuation of copper chemistry development for Damascene structures to 22 nm node size but also addresses the potential electrical limitations associated with the smaller geometries and electrolytic deposition technologies.