We report approaches to grow ultrathin Ru films for application as a seed layer and Cu diffusion barrier. For chemical vapor deposition (CVD) with Ru3(CO)12 we show the role surface hydroxyl groups have in nucleating the Ru islands that grow into a continuous film in a Volmer-Weber process, and how the nucleation density can be increased by applying a CO or NH3 overpressure. Thinner continuous films evolve in the presence of a CO overpressure. We report an optimun ammonia overpressure for Ru nucleation and that leads to deposition of smoother Ru thin films. Finally, we report a comparison of amorphous Ru films that are alloyed with P or B and demonstrate 3-nm thick amorphous Ru(B) films function as a Cu diffusion barrier.

This dissertation describes advances in the microfabrication of thin layer chromatography (TLC) plates. These plates are prepared by the patterning of carbon nanotube (CNT) forests on substrates, followed by their infiltration with an inorganic material. This document is divided into ten sections or chapters. Chapter 1 reviews the basics of conventional TLC technology. This technology has not changed substantially in decades. This chapter also mentions some of the downsides of the conventional approach, which include unwanted interactions of the binder in the plates with the analytes, relatively slow development times, and only moderately high efficiencies. Chapter 2 focuses primarily on the tuning of the iron catalyst used to grow the CNTs, which directly influences the diameters of the CNTs grown that are produced. Chapter 3 focuses on the atomic layer deposition (ALD) of SiO2 from a silicon precursor and ozone onto carbon-nanotubes to obtain an aluminum free stationary phase. This approach allowed us to overcome the tailing issues associated with the earlier plates prepared in our laboratory. Chapter 4 is a study of the hydroxylation state of the silica in our TLC plates. A linear correlation was obtained between the SiOH+/Si+ time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) peak ratio and the isolated silanol peak position at ca. 3740 cm-1 in the diffuse reflectance infrared spectroscopy (DRIFT) spectra. We also compared the hydroxylation efficiencies on our plates of ammonium hydroxide and HF. Chapter 5 reports a series of improvements in TLC plate preparation. The first is the low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) of silicon nitride onto CNTs, which can be used to make very robust TLC plates that have the necessary SiO2 surfaces. These TLC plates are the best we have prepared to date. We also describe here the ALD deposition of ZnO into these devices, which can make them fluorescent. Chapters 6 – 10 consist of contributions to Surface Science Spectra (SSS) of ToF-SIMS spectra of the materials used in our microfabrication process. SSS is a peer-reviewed database that has been useful to many in the surface community. The ToF-SIMS spectra archived include those of (i) Si/SiO2, (ii) Si/SiO2/Al2O3, (iii) Si/SiO2/Al2O3/Fe, (iv) Si/SiO2/Fe (annealed at 750 °C in H2), and (v) Si/SiO2/Al2O3/Fe(annealed)/CNTs. Both positive and negative ion spectra have been submitted. In summary, the present work is a description of advances in the development, thorough characterization, optimization, and application development of microfabricated thin layer chromatography plates that are superior to their commercial counterparts.

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Copper (Cu) has been the main choice of the metallization in advanced IC package technology. The epoxy molding compounds (EMC) and the solder flux used in the packaging devices can release ionic impurities. In the halide environment, the electrochemical migration (ECM) failure and corrosion related failure of copper redistribution layer (RDL) and the Cu bond pads respectively was studied. Electrolytic migration arises when the IC package undergoes testing as per JESD22-A110 standards (130oC, 85% RH for 96/256 hrs.). Copper migration is fundamentally an ionic process that requires an electrolyte, moisture, and bias. To accelerate the time for investigating these failures, it was important to benchmark the metrology for real time observation of ECM failure under high voltage. Metrology for electrochemical defect analysis (MEDA) was developed to provide insight on failure mechanism. The Cu RDL on wafer level chip scale package devices were tested by PEG drop test (PDT) using non-aqueous polyethylene glycol (PEG) matrix doped with ions (Cl-, ClO4-, SO4-) to simulate EMC environment. PDT was conducted to analyze the real time migration behavior of Cu electrodes using a potentiostat and microscope. A novel Cu-selective passivation coating was applied on Cu either by wet processes or chemical vapor deposition (CVD) that are IC manufacturing compatible. This Cu-selective passivation coating is thermally stable, strongly adheres to Cu, corrosion resistant, low cost and shows good potential to prevent ECM defects at the high voltage bHAST condition. FTIR and potentiodynamic polarization were utilized to characterize the Cu-selective passivation coating. Statistically union of selected analytical techniques help to acquire unique results about the chemical systems. Together, electrochemistry and spectroscopy help to gather chemical information about the composition near and on the electrode. Additionally, during the SnAgCu (SAC) solder ball bonding on the Cu wafer by mass reflow process, solder flux is used to reduce the native oxides on Cu and SAC solder ball. Post cleaning, residual amount of the solder flux corrodes the Cu wafer. Passivation coating is used as an organic solder preservative to avoid the solder flux while facilitating a good bond between the SAC solder ball and Cu wafer. We investigated the efficiency of the passivation coating in preventing the copper thermal oxidation. The intermetallic compound formation between the Cu wafer and SAC solder ball was studied on 2nm, 6nm, 30nm and 50nm passivated Cu wafer. Based on the SEM/EDS analysis 1.7 µm CuxSny IMC was formed on 2nm coated cu wafer with a Cu:Sn ratio of 1.8:1 & 0.13:1.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Physics / Hongxing Jiang / The optical and structural properties of Er-doped GaN/InGaN materials and devices synthesized by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) were investigated. Er-doped GaN via MOCVD emits a strong photoluminescence (PL) emission at 1.54 um using both above and below-bandgap excitation. In contrast to other growth methods, MOCVD-grown Er-doped GaN epilayers exhibit virtually no visible emission lines. A small thermal quenching effect, with only a 20% decrease in the integrated intensity of the 1.54 um PL emission, occurred between 10 and 300 K. The dominant bandedge emission of Er-doped GaN at 3.23 eV was observed at room temperature, which is red-shifted by 0.19 eV from the bandedge emission of undoped GaN. An activation energy of 191 meV was obtained from the thermal quenching of the integrated intensity of the 1.54 um emission line. It was observed that surface morphology and 1.54 um PL emission intensity was strongly dependent upon the Er/NH3 flow rate ratio and the growth temperature. XRD measurements showed that the crystalline ordering of the (002) plane was relatively unperturbed for the changing growth environment. Least-squares fitting of 1.54 um PL measurements from Er-doped GaN of different growth temperatures was utilized to determine a formation energy of 1.82 ± 0.1 eV for the Er-emitting centers. The crystalline quality and surface morphology of Er-doped InGaN (5% In fraction) was nearly identical to that of Er-doped GaN, yet the PL intensity of the 1.54 um emission from Er-doped InGaN (5% In fraction) was 16 x smaller than that of Er-doped GaN. The drop in PL intensity is attributed to the much lower growth temperature in conjunction with the high formation energy of the Er- emitting centers. Er-doped InGaN grown at fixed growth temperature with different growth pressures, NH3 flow rates, and Ga flow rates was also investigated, and showed that increased In fractions also resulted in a smaller 1.54 um PL intensity. Er-doped InGaN p-i-n diodes were synthesized and tested. The electroluminescence (EL) spectra under forward bias shows strong Er based emission in the infrared and visible region. The different emission lines from EL spectra in contrast to PL spectra implies different excitation methods for the Er based emission in the p-i-n diode than in the PL excited epilayer.

Graphene is a two-dimensional carbon structure that exhibits remarkable structure-property relations. Consequently, there has been immense effort undertaken towards developing methods for graphene synthesis. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and chemical exfoliation from colloidal suspensions are two common methods used for obtaining graphene films. However, the underlying experimental conditions have to be carefully optimized in order to obtain graphene films of controllable thickness and morphology. In this context, a significant part of this dissertation was devoted towards developing and improving current CVD-based and chemical exfoliation based methods for synthesizing high quality graphene films. Specifically, in the CVD based procedure for growing graphene on copper, the effect of surface pretreatment of copper was investigated and the quality of graphene grown using two different pretreatment procedures was compared and analyzed. In particular, graphene grown on electropolished copper (EP-Cu) was analyzed with respect to its surface morphology, surface roughness and thickness, and compared with graphene grown on as cold-rolled acetic acid cleaned copper (AA-Cu). It was shown that electropolishing of the Cu substrates prior to graphene growth greatly enhanced the ability to obtain flat, uniform, predominantly single layer graphene surface coverage on copper. The reported surface roughness of the graphene on EP-Cu was found to be much lower than for previously reported systems, suggesting that the electropolishing procedure adopted in this work has great promise as a pretreatment step for Cu substrates used in CVD growth of graphene. Obtaining graphene from colloidal suspensions of graphitic systems was also examined. In this work, an acid (H₂SO₄ + HNO₃) treatment process for intercalating natural graphite flakes was examined and the ability to reversibly intercalate and deintercalate acid ions within graphitic galleries was investigated. More importantly, a rapid-thermal expansion (RTP) processing was developed to thermally expand the acid-treated graphite, followed by exfoliation of predominantly bilayer graphene as well as few layer graphene flakes in an organic solvent (N, N-Dimethylformamide - DMF). The developed method was shown to provide bilayer and few layer graphene flakes in a reliable fashion. Fullerene is another carbon nanostructure that has garnered attention due to unique structure and chemical properties. Recently, there has been increased focus towards harnessing the properties of fullerenes by synthesizing fullerene self-assemblies in the form of extended rods, tubes and more complex shapes. Current methods to synthesize these self-assemblies are either cumbersome, time consuming or expensive. In this context, an alternate, straightforward dip-coating procedure technique to self-assemble equal-sized, faceted, polymerized fullerene nanorods on graphene-based substrates in a rapid fashion was developed. By suitably modifying the kinetics of self-assembly, the ability to reliably control the spatial distribution, size, shape, morphology and chemistry of fullerene nanorods was achieved.