Hydroquinone oriented growth control to achieve high-quality copper coating at high rate for electronics interconnection

Abstract A novel additive system comprising bis-(sodium sulfopropyl)-disulfide, polyethylene glycol and hydroquinone (HQ) was developed and investigated to achieve high rate copper electrodeposition at high temperature. HQ, as the key additive compound in this system, refines the Cu grain, makes the coating surface bright and smooth at high current density. The underlying mechanism of the additive-assisted electroplating was investigated through electrochemical, morphological characterizations and molecular dynamics simulation. Nanocubical copper particles were found through chronoamperometry tests, which explains the fine crystalline Cu grains and the bright coating surface. Additionally, the formation of the nanocubical copper particles is caused by the different adsorption energies of HQ on (311), (111) and (220) crystal faces and further leads to a strong suppression on the (220) orient crystal faces. Moreover, the electroplating results of through-holes illustrate the feasibility of this additive system in practical applications.