Electron beam-treated organic monolayers as a negative resist for Cu immersion plating on Si

In the present work, we investigate selective immersion plating of Cu on n-type Si(111) surfaces chemically modified with different organic monolayers and subsequently directly patterned by an electron-beam (e-beam). The organic molecules (1-undecylenic acid, 1-decene and 1-octadecene) were covalently attached to a hydrogen-terminated Si surface. The use of such monolayers as masks for electroless copper deposition by immersion plating on Si surfaces was investigated. Clearly, a masking effect can be observed, the efficiency of which depends on the type of molecule. Further, the effect of e-beam irradiation to improve the masking properties of the organic monolayers was studied. For this, the monolayers were locally irradiated using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with a lithographic tool. The results show that e-beam-modified organic monolayers can be used as a negative tone resist for copper electroless plating. The selectivity of the Cu deposition at e-beam-untreated regions strongly depends on the applied e-beam dose and on the nature of organic molecules. By optimizing the electroless deposition parameters, homogeneous deposition with complete selectivity can be achieved, leading to high lateral resolution of the Cu patterns.Dedicated to Zbigniew Galus on the occasion of his 70th birthday.