Multilayer thin film hydrogen getter

Abstract

A thin film hydrogen getter is provided for protecting GaAs circuitry sealed in an hermetic package. The thin film getter which comprises a multilayer metal film which is deposited by vacuum evaporation techniques onto a surface of the packaging. The multilayer film comprises (1) a titanium film and (2) palladium film which is deposited onto the titanium film. Both the titanium and the palladium are deposited during the same coating process run, thereby preventing the titanium from being oxidized. The palladium continues to prevent the titanium from being oxidized once the getter is exposed to the atmosphere. However, hydrogen is easily able to diffuse through the palladium into the titanium where it is chemically bound up, since palladium is highly permeable to hydrogen. If EMI shielding is desired, a conductive metal, such as aluminum or copper, can first be formed between the packaging and the titanium layer.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0002] The present invention relates to packaging of gallium arsenide (GaAs) integrated circuits, and, more particularly, to a hydrogen getter for chemically binding up hydrogen evolved from packaging materials.

BACKGROUND ART

[0003] Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) integrated circuits which are hermetically packaged will suffer from reduced performance and reliability if the hydrogen that is evolved from the packaging materials is allowed to diffuse into the GaAs devices. Hydrogen concentrations as low as 500 ppm have been demonstrated to decrease the mean time to failure. A prior art solution to this problem of hydrogen poisoning is to insert a material into the package which chemically binds up the hydrogen. This material is typically referred to as a hydrogen getter.

[0004] In many critical applications, reducing the size, weight, and cost of the hydrogen getter is crucial to improving the product line. In some applications, mainly those involving organic electronic packaging material, some type of metallization is required to provide a ground path/EMI (electro-magnetic interference) shield, due to the relatively high resistivity of the organic material.

[0005] Alpha Metals (Jersey City, N.J.) produces a hydrogen getter which in-corporates particles of a gettering material into a silicone matrix sheet. There are several disadvantages to this getter: (1) in order to provide enough hydrogen absorption capacity in a package, a significant volume of silicone getter must be used; (2) Residual Gas Analysis (RGA), used to determine internal contaminants within a hermetic package, can return false results related to moisture content when the silicone product is used; (3) silicone oil migration within the package has been observed, which makes re-work of the assembly impossible, due to the inability to re-solder joints wetted with the silicone oil; (4) there is added cost and complexity associated with having to bond the silicone getter sheet to some available surface; and (5) the silicone getter must first be vacuum baked at 150° C. for greater than 16 hours before it can be inserted into the package. This adds to the manufacturing time and cost.

[0006] Several years ago, titanium foils coated with vacuum-deposited palladium were investigated as potential hydrogen getters by Hughes Aircraft. These getters did not provide good reliable gettering capability, most likely due to the oxide layer present on the titanium foil. A titanium foil would also have the added cost of welding to the package lid.

[0007] Thus, there remains a need for a hydrogen getter which will provide significant improvement in the size, weight, cost, flexibility, and ease of insertion while at the same time achieving excellent hydrogen gettering capability both in terms of the speed at which the getter absorbs hydrogen and the overall amount of hydrogen that can be absorbed. There is also a need for a ground/EMI shield where the electronics package material comprises an organic polymer.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

[0008] In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention, a thin film hydrogen getter is provided. By “thin film” is meant herein a metal film that is vacuum-deposited, such as by sputtering or evaporation.

[0009] The thin film getter of the present invention comprises a multilayer metal film which is vacuum-deposited. The multilayer film comprises (1) a titanium film and (2) palladium film which is deposited onto the titanium film. Both the titanium and the palladium are deposited during the same coating process (vacuum deposition) run, thereby preventing the titanium from being oxidized. The palladium continues to prevent the titanium from being oxidized once the getter is exposed to the atmosphere. However, hydrogen is easily able to diffuse through the palladium into the titanium where it is chemically bound up, since palladium is highly permeable to hydrogen. The present inventors have demonstrated high hydrogen absorption rates and hydrogen capacities for thin film getters deposited onto plastic test parts.

[0010] The thin film getter has several advantages: (1) Since the thin film getter has a hydrogen capacity per unit volume which is 25 times higher than the silicone getter, then the thin film getter will occupy an extremely small volume; (2) It is flexible in its application, since any convenient substrate that is going into the hermetic package can be coated with the thin film getter; (3) There is no cost or time associated with welding or bonding the thin film getter into the package as there is with foil or silicone getters; (4) The thin film getters don't require a lengthy vacuum bakeout prior to insertion; a vacuum bakeout of 85° C. for 2 to 3 hours is sufficient; and (5) There is no silicone in the thin film getter, which prevents contamination.

[0011] There appears to be no other hydrogen getter which is produced entirely by vacuum deposition techniques and has the unique multilayer structure consisting of a 40 to 80 microinch layer of titanium followed by an 8 microinch thick protective layer of palladium. The palladium film, which prevents oxidation of the titanium while at the same time allowing hydrogen to easily pass through, is considered to be one of the most important novel features of the present invention.

[0012] In addition to the advantages that the thin film getter provides over the other getters, as described in greater detail below, the thin film getter is also able to absorb hydrogen effectively at temperatures as low as 0° C.

[0013] In accordance with a second aspect of the present invention, the thin film getter above is combined with a metal film, which acts as a ground/EMI shield. Specifically, the metal film is deposited, followed by deposition of the metal film, and finally followed by deposition of the thin film getter, as described above.

[0014] The palladium continues to prevent the titanium from being oxidized once the getter is exposed to the atmosphere, while the metal film below, e.g., aluminum or copper, provides an excellent high electrical conductance metal for ground shield. The getter acts to absorb hydrogen, as described above. In addition to the advantages described above for the getter, the ground/EMI shield can be used to enhance circuit performance.

[0015] The ground/EMI shield film component allows organic materials to be used within microwave modules, thereby providing cost benefits through reduced weight. The conductivity of the film allows its use in any type of dielectric package, thereby providing EMI and hydrogen protection for GaAs circuitry.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0016] FIG. 1 a is a cross-sectional view of a thin film hydrogen structure in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention;

[0017] FIG. 1 b is a cross-sectional view of a thin film hydrogen structure in accordance with a second embodiment of the present invention;

[0018] FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a test chamber for measurement of gettering properties; and

[0019] FIG. 3, on coordinates of pressure (in Torr) and time (in seconds), is a plot of characteristic gettering data.

BEST MODES FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

[0020] In a first embodiment, the thin film hydrogen getter 10 of the present invention consists of a vacuum-deposited multilayer film as shown in FIG. 1a, deposited on top of a surface 12a of substrate 12. A titanium (Ti) layer 14 is first vacuum-deposited, followed by a palladium (Pd) layer 16.

[0021] The titanium layer 14 has a thickness that is related to the expected generation of hydrogen over the lifetime of the package and the total area of the thin film, plus some safety margin. For example, for an expected hydrogen generation of about 75 Torr·cm3 from the package, only 0.56 mg of titanium would be required to absorb this amount of hydrogen. Factoring in a safety factor of 10, the required amount of titanium would still only be 5.6 mg.

[0022] The thickness of the palladium layer 16 must be thick enough to avoid pinholes (which would allow unwanted oxidation of the underlying titanium layer), but not so thick as to adversely affect the diffusion of hydrogen therethrough. Consistent with these considerations, the thickness of the palladium layer 16 is in the range of about 2,000 to 6,000 Å.

[0023] Both the Ti and Pd layers 14, 16 are deposited during the same processing run at a vacuum of about 10−6 Torr. The substrate 12 comprises a dielectric material, which may be used in microelectronic packages containing GaAs devices.

[0024] The design rule for estimating the total amount of titanium required for a particular package application is based on the average atomic ratio of hydrogen to titanium, X. For a conservative estimate, the concentration should not exceed X=0.1 during the lifetime of the package.

[0025] The theoretical hydrogen capacity per unit mass of titanium is 388 Torr·cm3·mg−1, but the effective capacity per unit mass that is measured is about 134 Torr·cm3·mg−1, which, again being conservative, is the value used herein to calculate the amount of titanium required. The requirement can be written as: 1$M_{\mathrm{Ti}}>\frac{20Q_{\mathrm{eff}}{T}_L}{134\mathrm{Torr}·{\mathrm{cm}}^3·{\mathrm{mg}}^{-1}}$

[0026] where MTi is the mass of titanium, Qeff is the rate of hydrogen production in the pack-age, and TL is the lifetime of the package. Assuming that TL=20 years and Qeff is 2.2×10−7 Torr·cm3·sec−1, then MTi must be greater than 20.7 mg. Since the density of Ti is 4.51 g·cm−3, this means that the volume occupied by the titanium must be greater than 4.59×10−3 cm3. If the surface area is 20 cm2, for example, then the titanium thickness must be at least 22,950 Å.

[0027] The thin film hydrogen getter 10 has the following features:

[0028] (1) The relatively thick Ti layer 14 absorbs and chemically binds up hydrogen.

[0029] (2) The Pd layer 16 prevents oxidation of Ti 14, but allows hydrogen to diffuse through to the Ti layer.

[0030] In a second embodiment, the thin film hydrogen getter/EMI shield 10′ of the present invention consists of a vacuum-deposited multilayer film as shown in FIG. 1b, deposited on top of the surface 12a of substrate 12. The EMI film comprises a thin (100 to 250 Å) electrically conductive metal, for example, a Ti adhesion layer 18 followed by an aluminum 20, 100 to 200 microinch in thickness, thereby providing 5 to 6 skin depths thickness at 10 GHz. As above, the getter portion comprises the Ti layer 14, followed by the palladium Pd layer 16. Again, the titanium layer 14 has a thickness of about 40 to 80 microinch, while the palladium layer 16 has a thickness of about 8 microinch. All of the four layers 14, 16, 18, 20 are deposited during the same processing run at a vacuum of about 10−6 Torr. Alternatively, the Ti adhesion layer 18 may be omitted, and instead, a copper or nickel layer, deposited by electroless deposition, may be deposited directly on the dielectric substrate 12. Here, the substrate 12 comprises an organic polymeric dielectric material, which may be used in microelectronic packages containing GaAs devices.

[0031] The thin film hydrogen getter/EMI shield 10′ has the same features as disclosed above for the thin film hydrogen getter 10, and in addition has the following feature:

[0032] (3) Aluminum or copper provides 5 to 6 skin depths of wave propagation media for high performance EMI shielding.

[0033] Hydrogen absorption of the thin film getter has been extensively tested.

[0034] Thin film getters with Ti thicknesses of 40 and 80 microinches have been investigated to determine hydrogen pumping rate, total hydrogen absorption, as well as area and volumetric effects on the gettering properties.

[0035] FIG. 2 shows in schematic form the gettering test system 22 that was designed and built to measure the gettering speed and capacity of the multilayer getter films 10, 10′ that were fabricated in accordance with the teachings herein. The gettering chamber 24 can be pumped out to the 1×10−6 Torr region by a diffusion pump 26 and can be heated by heating tape (not shown) that is wrapped around the outside of the chamber. The getter sample is admitted to the chamber 24 from the port 28 on the left side of the chamber and then the chamber is pumped down to the 1×10−6 Torr region and the temperature is elevated to ˜85° C. for at least 3 hours. Then the chamber 24 is allowed to come back to room temperature and the valve 30 to the diffusion pump 26 is closed. Hydrogen 32 is added to the chamber 24 in doses up to a typical pressure of about 1.0 Torr and then the hydrogen fill line valve 34 is shut. Once this valve 34 is shut, then the pressure begins to drop immediately due to the gettering effect. The pressure is measured as a function of time. Once the pressure has stabilized in the milliTorr region, another dose of hydrogen is once again added to the chamber 24. This process is continued until the getter 10 is saturated and is no longer absorbing hydrogen.

[0036] The chamber 24 is advantageously a stainless steel cylinder, with a conflat blank-off 36 at one end 24a. The conflat blank-off 36 is also stainless steel, provided with a copper gasket (not shown), and permits access to the sample (not shown) in the chamber 24, while sealing the chamber during operation. The chamber 24 is sealed at the opposite end 24b with a plate 38, fitted with openings 40, 42 to which a pressure gauge 44 and a residual gas analyzer (RGA) 46, through valve 48, are attached, respectively. The pressure gauge 44 permits monitoring of pressure inside the chamber 24, while the RGA permits monitoring of hydrogen concentration levels. The total internal volume of the chamber 24 is about 225 cm3.

[0037] FIG. 3 shows typical test data. The pressure in the test chamber 24 is plotted as a function of time. The vertical arrows 50 indicate where the hydrogen fill line valve 34 was opened to admit hydrogen to the chamber 24. It will be noted that the data falls on a line when plotted semi-logarithmically. The pressure drops exponentially due to the gettering effect of the multilayer film 10, 10′ and it does so at a fast rate, dropping to 1% of its original value after only about 600 seconds. The slope of the curve after each hydrogen add is proportional to the pumping speed of the getter. Hydrogen is repeatedly added in this fashion until the pressure no longer drops.

[0038] Other Experiments

[0039] A number of other experiments have been performed which have elucidated a number of important facts about the thin film hydrogen getters 10, 10′. These results are summarized here:

[0040] (1) Hydrogen is not released from the titanium at temperatures up to 115° C. Prior work done by others indicates that hydrogen should not desorb from titanium for temperature below 500° C.

[0041] (2) Thin film getters which use titanium have twice the effective hydrogen capacity as thin film getters which use zirconium as the active getter material.

[0042] (3) The pumping speed is proportional to getter surface area.

[0043] (4) The presence of helium and nitrogen do not impede the sorption of hydrogen by the getter.

[0044] (5) The hydrogen pumping speed S increases with temperature T according to:

S=S 0 e −E l /k B T

[0045] where S0 is the initial hydrogen pumping speed, kB is the Boltzmann constant, and El is the activation energy, which was measured to be 0.31 eV.

[0046] Summary

[0047] A multi-functional multilayer thin film hydrogen getter 10, 10′ has been developed which achieves:

[0048] (1) High hydrogen pumping speeds: 0.15 cm3/sec per cm2 at 23° C.

[0049] (2) The hydrogen removal rate of the thin film getter 10, 10′ when the hydrogen pressure is 1 Torr is 2×10−4 standard cm3 of hydrogen per second, which is 1,000 times faster than worst case hydrogen evolution rate in a hermetically sealed package.

[0050] (3) The hydrogen capacity is 135 Torr·cm3 per mg of titanium which is high, since it is only necessary to absorb about 75 Torr·cm3 of H2 over a typical package lifetime.

[0051] (4) The hydrogen pumping speed remains relatively high for temperatures down to 0° C. (the pumping speed at 0° C. is 30% of its value at room temperature).

[0052] (5) EMI shielding through incorporation of a highly conductive metallic sublayer which can be deposited on dielectric or non-dielectric packaging materials.

Industrial Applicability

[0053] The hydrogen getters of the present invention are expected to find use in hermetic sealing of GaAs electronic circuit packaging.

Claims

1. A hydrogen getter for gettering hydrogen evolved from packaging materials employed in hermetically-sealed GaAs integrated circuitry, comprising: (a) a layer of titanium for absorbing and chemically binding up said hydrogen, formed on a surface of said packaging; and (b) a layer of palladium for preventing oxidation of said titanium, but permeable to said hydrogen, formed on said layer of titanium.

2. The hydrogen getter of claim 1 wherein said titanium has a total mass larger than that given by the following equation:

3. The hydrogen getter of claim 1 further including a layer of an electrically conductive metal for providing electro-magnetic interference shielding, formed between said layer of titanium and said surface of said packaging.

4. The hydrogen getter of claim 3 wherein said electrically conductive metal is selected from the group consisting of aluminum and copper.

5. The hydrogen getter of claim 3 wherein said layer of said electrically conductive metal has a thickness ranging from 5 to 6 skin depths of wave propagation media.

6. The hydrogen getter of claim 3 wherein said layer of said electrically conductive metal comprises aluminum and wherein said hydrogen getter further includes a layer of titanium for adhering said aluminum layer to said surface of said packaging.

7. The hydrogen getter of claim 6 wherein said adhering layer of titanium has a thickness of about 20 nm.

8. A method for fabricating a hydrogen getter, said hydrogen getter for gettering hydrogen evolved from packaging materials employed in hermetically-sealed GaAs integrated circuitry, said method comprising: (a) providing said packaging; (b) vacuum-depositing a layer of titanium for absorbing and chemically binding up said hydrogen on a surface of said packaging; and (c) vacuum-depositing a layer of palladium for preventing oxidation of said titanium, but permeable to said hydrogen, on said layer of titanium, said vacuum deposition of both said titanium layer and said palladium layer being done sequentially during a single coating run to thereby prevent oxidation of said titanium layer.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein said titanium has a total mass larger than that given by the following equation:

10. The method of claim 8 further including a layer of an electrically conductive metal for providing electro-magnetic interference shielding, formed between said layer of titanium and said surface of said packaging.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein said electrically conductive metal is selected from the group consisting of aluminum and copper.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein said layer of said electrically conductive metal has a thickness ranging from 5 to 6 skin depths of wave propagation media.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein said layer of said electrically conductive metal comprises aluminum and wherein said hydrogen getter further includes a layer of titanium for adhering said aluminum layer to said surface of said packaging.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein said adhering layer of titanium has a thickness of about 20 nm.

15. In combination, a hydrogen getter for gettering hydrogen evolved from packaging materials employed in hermetically-sealed GaAs integrated circuitry and a ground plane/electro-magnetic interference shield, comprising: (a) a layer of an electrically conductive metal for providing electro-magnetic interference shielding, formed on a surface of said packaging; (b) a layer of titanium for absorbing and chemically binding up said hydrogen, formed on said conductive metal layer; and (c) a layer of palladium for preventing oxidation of said titanium, but permeable to said hydrogen, formed on said layer of titanium.

16. The combination of claim 15 wherein said titanium has a total mass larger than that given by the following equation:

17. The combination of claim 15 wherein said electrically conductive metal is selected from the group consisting of aluminum and copper.

18. The combination of claim 15 wherein said layer of said electrically conductive metal is formed to a thickness ranging from 5 to 6 skin depths of wave propagation media.

19. The combination of claim 15 wherein said layer of said electrically conductive metal comprises aluminum and wherein said combination further includes a layer of titanium for adhering said aluminum layer to said surface of said packaging.

20. The combination of claim 19 wherein said adhering layer of titanium is formed to a thickness of about 20 nm.

21. A method for fabricating a combination of a hydrogen getter for gettering hydrogen evolved from packaging materials employed in hermetically-sealed GaAs integrated circuitry and a ground plane/electro-magnetic interference shield, said method comprising: (a) providing said packaging; (b) forming a layer of an electrically conductive metal for providing electro-magnetic interference shielding, formed on a surface of said packaging; (c) vacuum-depositing a layer of titanium for absorbing and chemically binding up said hydrogen, formed on said conductive metal layer; and (d) vacuum-depositing a layer of palladium for preventing oxidation of said titanium, but permeable to said hydrogen, formed on said layer of titanium.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein said titanium has a total mass larger than that given by the following equation:

23. The combination of claim 21 wherein said layer of said electrically conductive metal is formed to a thickness ranging from 5 to 6 skin depths of wave propagation media.

24. The combination of claim 21 wherein said electrically conductive metal is selected from the group consisting of aluminum and copper.

25. The combination of claim 24 wherein said layer of said electrically conductive metal comprises aluminum and is vacuum-deposited and wherein said combination further includes vacuum-depositing a layer of titanium for adhering said aluminum layer to said surface of said packaging.

26. The combination of claim 25 wherein said adhering layer of titanium is deposited to a thickness of about 20 nm.

27. The combination of claim 24 wherein said layer of said electrically conductive metal comprises copper and is electroless-deposited on said surface of said packaging.