Plating and surface finishing play a central role in the fabrication of multilayer printed wiring boards and semiconductor wafers. Plating technology for electronics and semiconductor applications requires rigid bath control and disciplined methodology. Establishing correlations between what is found in the plated film and bath control parameters is fundamental in producing platings that are consistent and reliable. To establish these correlations, it is important to have a clear understanding of the chemical composition of the bath. Indirect bath measurements such as Hull cell and CVS tell an incomplete story. High Performance Liquid (HPLC) and Ion Chromatography (IC) are analytical techniques which provide important information on the concentration, chemical balance and trend measurement of major constituents such as additives, brighteners, boosters, accelerators, suppressors, stabilizers, carriers, levelers, inhibitors, accelerators, transition metals, metal complexes and contaminants in the plating bath. This information provides for improved device quality, reduced scrap rate and reduced costs of bath maintenance. This paper will cover the uses of HPLC and IC for the analysis of a variety of constituents in acid copper plating baths. Similar analyses and results may be obtained with other plating baths such as nickel, gold, palladium, and tin-lead. Sample results for a variety of plating baths will be presented as part of the conference presentation.
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