Alchimer: Thumbs up from RTI

France-based Alchimer recently announced that their proprietary wet deposition technology, electrografting, has been validated by research institute, RTI International. RTI presented its research findings at the IEEE 3D System Integration Conference (3DIC) in Munich, Germany, confirming that electrografting is a reliable deposition technology for insulator, barrier, and seed layer as compared to ALD . Chip Scale Review caught up with Steve Lerner, the company's CEO, at the 2010 RTI 3D System Integration Conference, held Dec. 8-10, 2010 in Burlingame CA to learn more about the consequences of that announcement.

CSR: Steve, could you give us a little background on how this came about and what motivated Alchimer to seek third party evaluation from RTI?

Lerner: First to clarify, electrografting (and chemical grafting) was already validated in terms of reliability, and it's not the first time we've announced findings. However, this was the first public work by a third party independent research organization.

When we first came out with this technology, we were welcome at every conference because we were just a lab phenomena. Once we became a real product, that changed and the dry process community attempted to poke holes in the technology. First, we didn't have manufacturing capacity, but now with our partnerships in Korea and Japan, we have enough to supply the world for the next 3 years. Then it was that we only had one film, but now we have the entire suite for insulation, barrier, seed layer and now fill. Then it was that we didn't have reliability data, so we produced internal data. One by one, we've knocked off all the excuses being fed to the user community by sources that don't have reliability data themselves. TSV is new to everyone; no one has a complete suite of reliability data. So we were anxious to go head to head, and demonstrate our films in independent labs like RTI, finding independent voice.

CSR: How did RTI go about validating the electrografting process?

Lerner: They performed standard reliability tests such as autoclave testing and high temperature storage testing.. The work was done on the films on blanket wafers that were put through the suite of reliability tests. The next step would be to test patterned TSVs, then the device and IC levels.

CSR: Did RTI evaluate the core technology itself, or did it also look at the different applications that make up the AquiVia family?

Lerner: RTI evaluated the electrografting and chemical grafting at the isolation, barrier and seed layers. Since they began the project, we've added a fill step that allows us to skip the seed layer. Receiving RTI's validation was affirming and a nice objective. Alchimer's technology gives up nothing in terms of material integrity yet adds lots in terms of design rules.

CSR: How significant is this validation by RTI? What does it mean for Alchimer?

Lerner: Although it doesn't give us (Alchimer) any new information because we had already validated reliability internally, it's a comfort for others in the industry that look to 3rd party validation and that makes it very valuable. However, in reality, a customer will always do their own evaluation; no one will use third party data to design their own products in. It's the same with everyone; we all still have to go through the reliability cycle with the customer at the device level.

CSR: You've been very successful introducing the wet deposition processes in Asia. Does RTI's seal of approval help bring it to market in the US?

Lerner: If there is a market in the US, yes. The data was presented in Munich in November at the IEEE 3D System Integration Conference. It's a global network, so it doesn't really matter where the validation was done, as long as its third party. It's a helpful validation. Now we can use it to swipe away allegations of no reliability. The success in Asia has more to do with the fact that Asia is just faster to move on this.

Overall, the level of activity is huge. We have a number of evaluations going on. TSV is really taking off especially in the interposer space. That's my favorite theme; they're coming out in full bloom. We'll have a new application introduction targeting silicon interposer technology at PanPac in January. Interposers are heavily cost driven, and are right in our sweet spot.