Arlene Arthur

US Patent:

58613412, Jan 19, 1999

Filed:

Jul 15, 1996

Appl. No.:

8/680453

Inventors:

Cheng P. Wen - Mission Viego CA
Wah S. Wong - Montebello CA
Arlene E. Arthur - Torrance CA

Assignee:

Raytheon Company - El Segundo CA

International Classification:

H01L 21441

US Classification:

438628

Abstract:

A thin film (at least one atomic layer to about 400. ANG. ) 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.