BMV filling in VCL for advanced IC substrates production

Manufacturing progress for all electronics production is determined by the driving forces for the industry which can be summarised as a demand for reduction in costs with improvement in performance — or just short: "faster, smaller and cheaper." For further development progress in circuit miniaturization coupled with the reduction of overall process costs and for meeting the demand for ever more filled BMV's on each plated layer, advances in via filling are required. The filling processes used for a stable production must provide void free, i. e. inclusion free filling and a minimum of surface plated copper simultaneously. This paper describes how to reliably fill BMV's with finest lines and spaces in pattern plate mode with vertical conveyorized lines. The findings are based on equipment using insoluble anodes together with a copper replenishment process. The result of our investigations is an electrolyte with improved BMV filling capability, better within-unit distribution and longer lifetime compared to existing via filling systems.