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Direct Electroless Deposition of Nickel onto Silicon Nitride Ceramic: A Novel Approach for Copper Metallization of Micro‐/Nano‐fabricated Devices
Author(s) -
Zeb Gul,
Duong Thi Luong,
Balazinski Marek,
Le Xuan Tuan
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
advanced engineering materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.938
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1527-2648
pISSN - 1438-1656
DOI - 10.1002/adem.202000598
Subject(s) - materials science , surface modification , silicon nitride , nanotechnology , nickel , silicon , silanization , copper , chemical engineering , layer (electronics) , metallurgy , composite material , engineering
Current surface modification chemistry of silicon nitride (Si 3 N 4 ) in the fabrication of micro/nano systems (MEMS/NEMS) mainly relies on multistep chemical processes, essentially consisting of a surface pretreatment and a challenging silanization procedure. Although direct modification of Si 3 N 4 surface has rarely been reported in the literature, here a simple surface functionalization strategy using diazonium chemistry in open air and at room temperature, which provides a practical solution to directly attach aminophenyl groups to pristine silicon nitride without altering its intrinsic properties, is described. These strongly grafted amine‐terminated groups are easily activated to become nuclei for initializing electroless nickel plating (autocatalytic nickel deposition). This electroless nickel plating of silicon nitride while avoiding the multiplicity and complexity of the process steps is ideal for its integration into a typical MEMS/NEMS process flow. In a possible integration scheme, due to its suitable properties, this nickel film serves as a conducting seed layer for the electrolytic deposition of copper to fill the microdevices, thereby avoids the use of typically employed expensive vacuum processes.