The Inhibition of Silver Agglomeration by Gold Activation in Silver Electroless Plating

Abstract

In Ag electroless plating, Ag agglomeration has been the obstacle to obtain thin Ag films. The crystallographic misfit between the substrate and Ag can accelerate Ag agglomeration. In this paper, Au, whose crystallographic characteristics are similar with those of Ag, is used as the activation material. As a result, the Ag layer was deposited in the form of layer-by-layer growth. Therefore, Ag film electrolessly deposited on a substrate activated by Au can be used to manufacture the interconnections in microelectronic devices. In this experiment, the resistivity of the Ag film was measured to 2.5 mV cm, which was decreased to 1.95 mV cm by the annealing process.