JP2009287093A - Cathode cartridge for electroplating - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a cathode cartridge for electroplating, which does not damage a silicon wafer even if electrical insulators exert a large sandwiching force on the silicon wafer. <P>SOLUTION: The cathode cartridge 1 for electroplating, which is used for sandwiching the silicon wafer W between a pair of the electrical insulators 2 and 3 and immersing the workpiece into a plating solution to form a plated film on a part exposed from an opening 4 of the electrical insulators on the silicon wafer W, is configured by forming a ring-shaped recess 5 on a mating face of the electrical insulator 3 so as to surround the opening 4 of the electrical insulator, accommodating and arranging a ring member 6 in the recess 5 in a state of making a sealing member 7 closely adjacent to the inner and outer circumferences of the ring member 6, and implanting a plurality of pin members 10 on the ring member 6 at an equal space in a circumferential direction. The pin member 10 includes: a housing which is inserted into bores 34 and 35 of the ring member 6; the body of the pin which is stored in the housing so as to be freely movable therein and projects its tip from the housing; and a spring which has been stored in the housing and energizes the body of the pin. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a cathode cartridge for electroplating in which a plate to be plated such as a silicon wafer is sandwiched between a pair of insulators and immersed in a plating solution, and plating is formed on a portion exposed from the opening of the insulator of the plate to be plated.

  In recent years, plating technology has been applied in various technical fields, and is also used in semiconductor wiring technology. In the semiconductor field, in order to realize high integration and high performance of a semiconductor, it is required to reduce the wiring pitch, and recently, a wiring technique called a damascene process has been adopted. The damascene process is a method of securing a wiring groove by performing a dry etching process after forming an interlayer insulating film and embedding a wiring material in the wiring groove by plating.

  In addition, as the latest technology using other plating techniques, there is a technique for creating a micro mechanical part called LIGA (Lithographie Galvanforming Abforming). LIGA is a technique for molding metal microparts by casting an acrylic resin with X-rays and depositing a thick plating on the mold.

In order to realize these plating techniques, it is necessary to deposit the plating uniformly in the grooves formed in the plate to be plated. Therefore, as shown in Patent Document 1, a cathode cartridge for electroplating is proposed in which a plate to be plated is sandwiched between a pair of insulators and immersed in a plating solution, and plating is formed on a portion exposed from the insulator opening of the plate to be plated. Has been. In this cathode cartridge, the protrusion of the electrode ring is brought into contact with the peripheral portion of the plate to be plated and connected to the cathode of the DC power source. In order to prevent the electrode ring and the plate from being fixed due to plating, a pair of insulators are used. A ring-shaped seal member is disposed on the inner side and the outer side of the electrode ring at the mating surfaces.
Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-301299 (paragraphs 0011 to 0014, FIG. 1)

  By the way, in the semiconductor field, a silicon wafer is used as a plate to be plated, but in recent years its thickness tends to be small. In the cathode cartridge of Patent Document 1, a pair of insulators are screwed together to hold the silicon wafer. If the screws are tightened too much, the silicon wafer may be damaged.

  In view of such circumstances, an object of the present invention is to provide a cathode cartridge for electroplating in which the plate to be plated is not damaged even if the holding force of the plate to be plated by the insulator is large.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention provides an electroplating cathode cartridge in which a plate to be plated is sandwiched between a pair of insulators and immersed in a plating solution, and plating is formed on a portion exposed from the insulator opening of the plate to be plated. A plurality of ring-shaped seal members are provided on the mating surface of the insulator so as to surround the insulator opening, and the cathode connection is in contact with the peripheral portion of the plate to be plated between the seal members. A plurality of pin members are disposed at intervals in the circumferential direction, and the pin members are supported by one of the insulators and configured to be movable in a direction substantially perpendicular to the plate to be plated, One of the bodies is provided with a biasing means for biasing the pin member to the other side of the insulator.

  A ring-shaped recess is formed on one mating surface of the insulator so as to surround the opening, a ring member is accommodated in the recess, and the seal member is adjacent to each of the inner and outer peripheries thereof. The pin member is preferably implanted in the member.

  The pin member includes a housing embedded in the ring member, a pin main body that protrudes from the housing and is movably accommodated in the housing, and is encased in the housing and biases the pin main body It is preferable that the pin main body is urged by the spring and the tip thereof is brought into contact with the plate to be plated.

  It is a mating surface of the insulator, and the tip is opened in a gap formed between a peripheral edge of the plate to be plated and a seal member on the outer side thereof, and either one of the pair of insulators. Preferably, an air suction passage is formed.

  According to the present invention, since the pin member is urged by the urging means and brought into contact with the plate to be plated, there is no risk that the plate to be plated is damaged even if the holding force of the plate to be plated by the insulator is large. .

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
1 is an exploded perspective view of a cathode cartridge for electroplating according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view showing one insulator before setting a silicon wafer, FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA in FIG. Is a cross-sectional view taken along line BB in FIG. 2, and FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the pin member.

  An electroplating cathode cartridge (hereinafter referred to as a cathode cartridge) 1 according to the present embodiment sandwiches a silicon wafer (plate to be plated) W between a pair of insulators 2 and 3 and is immersed in a plating solution. The plating is formed on the surface of the silicon wafer W exposed from the opening 4. The two insulators 2 and 3 are formed into a plate shape with a resin such as acrylic, and the concentric surface 2 a of one insulator 2 is concentric so that a ring-shaped recess 5 surrounds the opening 4. It is formed. The concave portion 5 accommodates a ring member 6 in a deep portion 5a at the center in the width direction, and accommodates O-rings (seal members) 7 in shallow portions 5b on both sides thereof (see FIG. 3).

  The ring member 6 includes a resin portion 6a and a metal portion 6b. The resin portion 6a is formed of a soft resin material so as to buffer the clamping force of the silicon wafer W. The metal part 6b is formed of a highly conductive metal material. The resin portion 6 a and the metal portion 6 b are fastened together with screws 33 and fixed to the bottom surface of the recess 5.

  A pin member 10 is planted so as to divide the ring member 6 into eight equal parts in the circumferential direction on the surface of the ring member 6 that is closer to the inner peripheral side in the width direction (see FIG. 2). The ring member 6 is provided with a through hole 34 in the resin portion 6a and a bottomed hole 35 in the metal portion 6b in order to plant the pin member 10 (see FIG. 1). As shown in FIG. 5, the pin member 10 includes a housing 10b that is inserted into the holes 34 and 35 of the ring member 6, and a pin body 10a that is movably accommodated in the housing 10b with the tip protruding from the housing 10b. A spring 10c that is accommodated in the housing 10b and biases the pin body 10a, and the pin body 10a and the housing 10b are formed of a conductive material such as brass.

  On one insulator 2, the insertion hole 12 for passing the conductor 14 connecting the silicon wafer W to the cathode of a DC power supply (not shown) and the other insulator 3 are sucked and brought into close contact with the O-ring 7. An air suction passage 13 is formed. One end of the conductor 14 protrudes from the end surface of the insulator 2 through the packing 15 to constitute a connector 16. On the other hand, the other end of the conductor 14 protrudes into the recess 5 from the insertion hole 12 and is fixed to the ring member 6 with a screw 32 (see FIG. 3). The ring member 6 is provided with holes 30 at four equally spaced locations, one of which is inserted with a fixing screw 32 for fixing to the conductor 14, and the remaining hole 30 for fixing the insulator 2. Screws 33 are inserted (see FIG. 1).

  One end of the air suction passage 13 opens into the deep portion 5a of the recess 5 and communicates with the through hole 31 of the ring member 6 (see FIG. 4). On the other hand, the other end of the air suction passage 13 is connected to a connecting member 17 provided on the end face of the insulator 2 (see FIG. 1). Now, when the air in the air suction passage 13 is sucked by the pump P, it is formed on the mating surfaces 2a and 3a of the insulators 2 and 3 between the peripheral edge of the silicon wafer W and the O-ring 7 outside thereof. Air in the gap S is sucked out from the through hole 31 of the ring member 6, and the mating surface 3 a of the insulator 3 is in close contact with the O-ring 7 and the surface of the silicon wafer W. In other words, since the insulators 2 and 3 may be temporarily fixed with the screws 18, the insertion holes 19 of the screws 18 are formed in the insulator 2, and the corresponding screw holes 20 are formed in the insulator 3. .

  When the silicon wafer W is mounted on the cathode cartridge 1, the silicon wafer W is placed on the ring member 6 so as to be in contact with all of the pin members 10 (see FIG. 2), and the insulator 3 is placed thereon. After temporarily fixing with the screw 18, the connecting member 17 may be connected to the pump P to suck the air in the air suction passage 13. Then, the silicon wafer W is sandwiched between the insulators 2 and 3, and the peripheral edge thereof is in close contact with the inner O-ring 7 and the ring member 6 to push the pin body 10 a of the pin member 10 into the through hole 34, while the insulator 3, the outer portion of the silicon wafer W is in close contact with the O-ring 7 (see FIG. 3). That is, the contact portion between the pin member 10 and the silicon wafer W is sealed by the inner and outer O-rings 7 and 7, and the silicon wafer W is connected to the connector via the pin member 10, the metal portion 6 b of the ring member 6 and the conductor 14. 16 is electrically connected.

  After the silicon wafer W is mounted on the cathode cartridge 1 in this way, the cathode cartridge 1 is soaked and immersed in a plating solution in a plating tank (not shown), and the opening 4 of the insulator 2 is opposed to the metal plate in the plating solution. The connector 16 is connected to the cathode of the DC power supply, while the metal plate is connected to the anode of the DC power supply. Then, the element of the metal plate is ionized and eluted into the plating solution, and is deposited on the portion exposed from the opening 4 of the silicon wafer W to form a plating layer.

  In this cathode cartridge 1, since the pin body 10a of the pin member 10 is urged by the spring 10c and is in contact with the silicon wafer W, even if the sandwiching force of the silicon wafer W by the insulators 2 and 3 is large, the silicon wafer There is no risk of W being damaged.

  Further, the air in the air suction passage 13 is sucked and the insulator 3 is uniformly adhered to the O-ring 7 to improve the sealing performance. However, the thickness of the silicon wafer W is not so small. In this case, the silicon wafer W may be clamped by tightening the screw 18 instead of air suction in the air suction passage 13.

In the above embodiment, the air suction passage 13 is installed in the insulator 3 on the side where the opening 4 is provided. However, as shown by a two-dot chain line in FIG. May be installed.
Furthermore, although the pin member 10 is installed in the insulator 3 on the side where the opening 4 is provided, it may be transferred to the other insulator 2.
By the way, in the above embodiment, the silicon wafer W is plated as the plate to be plated. However, the object of the plating process may be a glass substrate or a ceramic substrate, and the shape may be a square or the like instead of a circle. Good. Further, the ring member 6 and the seal member 7 may be formed following the shape of the plate to be plated.

It is a disassembled perspective view of the cathode cartridge for electroplating of this invention. It is a top view which shows one insulator before setting a silicon wafer. It is the sectional view on the AA line of FIG. FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line B-B in FIG. 2. It is sectional drawing of a pin member.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Electroplating cathode cartridge 2 Insulator 2a Mating surface 3 Insulator 3a Mating surface 4 Opening 5 Recessed part 6 Ring member 6a Resin part 6b Metal part 7 O-ring 10 Pin member 10a Pin main body 10b Housing 10c Spring 12 Insertion hole 13 Air suction Passage 14 Conductor 15 Packing 16 Connector 16
17 connecting member 18 screw 19 insertion hole 20 screw hole 30 hole 31 through hole 32 screw 33 screw 34 through hole 35 hole P pump S gap W silicon wafer

Claims (4)

  In a cathode cartridge for electroplating in which a plate to be plated is sandwiched between a pair of insulators and immersed in a plating solution to form a plating on a portion exposed from the insulator opening of the plate to be plated, the insulation is provided on the mating surface of the insulator A plurality of ring-shaped seal members are disposed so as to surround the body opening, and a cathode connecting pin member that contacts the peripheral edge of the plate to be plated is spaced between the seal members in the circumferential direction. The pin member is supported by one of the insulators and is configured to be movable in a direction substantially perpendicular to the plate to be plated, while the pin member is attached to one of the insulators. A cathode cartridge for electroplating, comprising a biasing means for biasing the other side of the insulator.   A ring-shaped recess is formed on one mating surface of the insulator so as to surround the opening, a ring member is accommodated in the recess, and the seal member is adjacent to each of the inner and outer peripheries thereof. The electroplating cathode cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the pin member is implanted in the member.   The pin member includes a housing embedded in the ring member, a pin main body that protrudes from the housing and is movably accommodated in the housing, and is encased in the housing and biases the pin main body 3. The electroplating cathode cartridge according to claim 2, further comprising: a spring that urges the pin main body with the spring so that a tip of the pin main body is brought into contact with the plate to be plated.   It is a mating surface of the insulator, and the tip is opened in a gap formed between a peripheral edge of the plate to be plated and a seal member on the outer side thereof, and either one of the pair of insulators. The cathode cartridge for electroplating according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein an air suction passage is formed.

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