Effect of acetic acid on wet patterning of copper/molybdenum thin films in phosphoric acid solution

Copper metallization is a key issue for high performance thin film transistor (TFT) technology. A phosphoric acid based copper etchant is a potentially attractive alternative to the conventional hydrogen peroxide based etchant due to its longer-life expectancy time and higher stability in use. In this paper, it is shown that amount of the acetic acid in the phosphoric based copper etchant plays an important role in controlling the galvanic reaction between the copper and the molybdenum. As the concentration of acetic acid in the phosphoric mixture solution increased from 0 M to 0.4 M, the measured galvanic current density dropped from 32 mA/cm2 to 26 mA/cm2, indicating that the acetic acid induces the lower galvanic reaction between the copper and the molybdenum in the solution. From the XPS analysis, with the addition of the acetic acid, the thickness of the protective MoO2 passive film covering the molybdenum surface grew and the dissolution rate of the molybdenum thin film decreased. However, the dissolution rate of the copper thin film increased as the concentration of acetic acid in the mixture solution increased.