By Debra Vogler, senior technical editor
April 8, 2011 — Erik Smith, COO of Alchimer, and an attendee at the GSA Memory Conference (3/31/11, San Jose, CA), describes the company’s wet process technology, i.e. electrografting, during a podcast interview with Debra Vogler, senior technical editor, at the event. "This is fundamentally the building and growing of molecules, rather than depositing and forcing molecules onto sidewalls of TSVs," said Smith. The company has two different processes: electrolytic and electroless (for growing isolation liners, barriers, and Cu seed), and a fill technology (electrolytic process – for isolation, barrier and a fill). "We have a full solution for high-aspect ratio TSVs." He also noted that a Cu seed isn’t needed because the company’s process uses a NiB barrier and the wet process is much less expensive than a dry process.
Listen to Smith’s interview here: Download or Play Now
The technology is also extendible. "We have not seen a via drilled that we cannot fill or cannot line with step coverage in the range of 60-90%," said Smith. "Because we’ve demonstrated 20:1 aspect ratio, 5µm diameter vias, this offers the industry the ability to not be locked into a particular aspect ratio."
For more detailed information, read the company’s cover article in the April issue of Solid State Technology, "Wet-process technologies for scalable through-silicon vias," by Claudio Truzzi. (View the digital edition here)
Subscribe to Solid State Technology/Advanced Packaging.
Follow Solid State Technology on Twitter.com via editors Pete Singer, twitter.com/PetesTweetsPW and Debra Vogler, twitter.com/dvogler_PV_semi.