… Novellus' SABRE copper electroplating and VECTOR plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) systems. The new process will enable the 3-D integration of multiple semiconductor chips in advanced product applications that require both small form factors and lower power consumption.
The release goes on to let us know that:
Novellus has developed a unique, high performance SABRE Electrofill TSV process that uses patented hardware and chemistries to achieve void-free fill with minimal excess copper deposition. Copper overburden is reduced by 75 percent, allowing conventional chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) to be used instead of custom polishing slurries. Additionally, SABRE's optimized TSV chemistries have faster plating times, resulting in higher throughputs. To address the requirement of lower temperature dielectrics, Novellus' VECTOR platform with its patented multi-station sequential deposition architecture (MSSD) enables the deposition of stable dielectric films at temperatures less than 200 degrees C with the breakdown voltage, leakage performance, and wafer-to-wafer repeatability required for reliable, high yielding TSVs.
I can't help but wondering whether these developments will be somewhat along the lines of what's going on over at Tezzaron with their "Super Vias" (there are some good papers describing Tezzaron's Cu Electrochemical Plating process on their site). This is getting really interesting. As Dick Wilson recently commented, this is going to be a patent war.
Now that I'm paying attention, again thanks to Mr. Wilson, I'm seeing Big Blue's name all over the vertical integration space. Hmm…
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