Kinetics of low temperature direct copper–copper bonding

Wafer level metal bonding involving copper layers is a key technology for three-dimensional integration. An appropriate surface activation can be performed in order to obtain room temperature direct bonding with bonding strength to be compatible with microelectronic device integration. In this paper, we focus on bonding strengthening mechanisms in the low temperature range from 20 to 100 °C. In order to improve the bonding interface closure, several process parameters are studied: water amount available when surfaces are brought into contact and copper layers deposition technique have been identified to be predominant in this low temperature range. Based on metal oxidation theory, several mechanisms are proposed and some calculations on this bonding strengthening are performed. For the first time, activation energies of this phenomenon are obtained for copper layers deposited by different method in the specific environment of the bonding interface. This study gives guidelines and recommendations for the integration of this metal bonding technique at low temperature.