Plated nickel-gold/dielectric interface for passivated MMICs

摘要

A thin film (at least one atomic layer to about 400 ANGSTROM ) of nickel is electrolytically plated on top of electrolytically-plated gold electrodes in GaAs monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) without any additional photoresist masking step. The thin electrolytically-plated nickel film improves adhesion of a passivating dielectric layer (e.g., silicon dioxide, silicon nitride, and silicon oxynitride) formed on the electrolytically-plated gold electrodes. The electrolytically-plated nickel film can be removed locally to facilitate the fabrication of plated silver bumps (for off-chip electrical connections and thermal paths) on passivated flip chip MMICs.