Effects of surface treatment on the bonding quality of wafer-level Cu-to-Cu thermo-compression bonding for 3D integration

Abstract

Various surface treatments are applied for surface oxide removal prior to wafer-level Cu-to-Cu thermo-compression bonding and the bonding quality is systematically analyzed in this work. Three methods are investigated: self-assembled monolayer (SAM) passivation, forming gas annealing and acetic acid wet cleaning. The surface conditions are carefully examined including roughness, contact angle and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) scan. The wafer pairs are bonded at 250 °C under a bonding force of 5500 N for a duration of 1 h in a vacuum environment. The bonding medium consists of a Cu (300 nm) bonding layer and a Ti (50 nm) barrier layer. The bonding quality investigation consists of two parts: hermeticity based on helium leak test and mechanical strength using four-point bending method. Although all samples under test with different surface treatment methods present an excellent hermetic seal and a robust mechanical support, the measurement results show that samples bonded after SAM passivation exhibit the best hermeticity and bonding strength for 3D integration application.