Parametric modeling study of basic electrodeposition in microvias

In this paper, we present the results of a modeling study that investigates the material behavior in the electroplating process for the fabrication of micro-vias into printed circuit boards. The simulations are based on the technique that allows explicit tracking of the interface between the electrolyte and the deposited metal in each time step. The control parameters are the aspect ratio, copper ions concentration and initial current density. The response parameters are the filling time and two filling performance metrics.

Introduction

Electrodeposition (ED) is a complex process and a widely used technique for the fabrication of electronic components. The study of ED in microfeatures is motivated by the necessity of the manufacturing of high quality multi-layered printed circuit boards. The connection between different layers is provided by the so-called vertical interconnect access (via). Microvias are primarily formed in a PCB either by mechanical drilling or laser ablation, and then filled using the electroplating process.