Dr. Thomas P. Moffat

Material Measurement Laboratory

National Institute of Standards and Technology

Friday, October 27

11:00 a.m. - 214 Mudd and Zoom

Electrochemical Deposition for Microelectronic Interconnects

Abstract: Since the beginning of the microelectronics era, ongoing miniaturization of transistors has been accompanied by the development of ever more intricate multilevel Cu interconnects. Presently these range from nanoscale on-chip wiring to 3D TSV for chip stacking along with related structures for advanced packaging and printed circuit board applications. Electrodeposition has been a key process for void-free Cu filling of recessed patterned features by virtue of surfactant-mediated superconformal growth. This lecture will detail how the combination of electroanalytical kinetics, metallurgical analysis, and in situ electrochemical surface science measurements can be used to reveal the mechanisms associated with this unusual deposition mode. Going forward, significant challenges loom as surface and grain boundary scattering threaten to curtail Cu interconnect scaling at the finest dimensions and thus the search for new materials and alternative processing schemes is underway. Accordingly, the extension of insights gained  from Cu superfilling to the processing of other materials will be discussed.

Bio: Thomas P Moffat is with the Functional Nanostructured Materials group in the Material Measurement Laboratory at NIST. He began his research career as an undergraduate student working part time in the laboratory of Barry Lichter and William Flanagan at Vanderbilt University. After receiving his B.E. in 1982 and M.Sc. in 1984, he joined Ron Latanision’s group in the H.H. Uhlig Laboratory at MIT. In 1989, he received a Sc.D. degree for his work exploring the chemical passivity of chromium-based metallic glasses. This was followed by a two year stint as a postdoctoral associate in Allen Bard’s chemistry laboratory at the University of Texas, Austin studying the corrosion and passivation of metals using scanning tunneling microscopy. Since joining NIST in 1991, Dr. Moffat’s efforts have focused on using electroanalytical and surface science methods to understand the structure, composition, and electrochemical performance of thin films. Exploration into surfactant mediated electrochemical deposition of microelectronic interconnects and, more recently, electrocatalysts have been of particular interest. For his work on superconformal electrodeposition, he received NIST’s Samuel Wesley Stratton Award (2011), named after the first director of the Institute, the Research Award of the ECS Electrodeposition Division (2006) and the Gold Medal award of the United States Department of Commerce (2001). To date he has authored or co-authored 200 technical papers. He was elected a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society in 2009. Dr. Moffat is also an active member of the Electrochemical Society, International Society of Electrochemistry, Materials Research Society and AAAS.

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Meeting ID: 944 5886 0929
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