Plating Health Detector

Developed to operate with the RTA 3D Analyzer, Technic’s Plating Health Detector (PHD) allows for monitoring and maintenance of “bath health”.

In the course of copper plating at the wafer surface, a large spectrum of undesirable side reactions takes place. As a result, a variety of breakdown products accumulate in the plating bath. Additionally, there is always a possibility (although quite remote) to introduce foreign contaminant(s) to the plating chamber. Copper electrochemical processes (copper reduction and/or oxidation) are very sensitive to the presence of breakdown products and/or contaminates.

RTA MTEP is employed to monitor changes in specifically designed for this purpose AC and DC voltammetric scans . Chemometric approach allows for quantification of these changes and as a result the numerical (arbitrary unit) bath status indicator(s) is displayed.

  • Degradation products, by-products,  plating bath contaminants cause alteration of RTA voltammograms
  • The changes in voltammograms are quantified and displayed as a bath status indicator(s).
  • Coupling chemometrics with electrochemical measurements provides performance-based overall characterization of the electrodeposition process
  • Any excursions from expected conditions are detected and the warning is sent to the operator.