CIRCUPOSIT™ 6530 catalyst process for electroless copper metallization

This paper describes the development of a new ionic palladium catalyst, CIRCUPOSIT™6530 Catalyst, along with a tartrate-based horizontal electroless copper bath, CIRCUPOSIT™6550, to meet the performance demands of high-density-interconnect (HDI) and packaging (PKG) substrates in horizontal electroless copper plating. Implementation of the new ionic catalyst process is demonstrated through excellent coverage and reliability performance of through holes and microvias on HDI and PKG substrates following processing in horizontal equipment, as well as peel strength on low profile dielectric materials in the semi-additive process. Results also showed that the new CIRCUPOSIT™6530 Catalyst demonstrated stable performance during customer qualification.