A tool including a tool body, the tool body including a substrate having a tool-side surface, an intermediate layer positioned over the tool-side surface, and an outer layer positioned over the intermediate layer, the outer layer including a metallic material.

A tool including a tool body, the tool body including a substrate having a tool-side surface, an intermediate layer positioned over the tool-side surface, and an outer layer positioned over the intermediate layer, the outer layer including a metallic material.

A processing device for a metal material, containing: an airtight container for housing a specimen thereinside; an oxygen pump for extracting oxygen molecules from a gas discharged from the airtight container; a circulation means for returning the gas into the airtight container; and a plasma generation means present inside the airtight container for converting the gas returned from the circulation means into plasma and exposing the specimen thereto.

There is provided a silver-coated copper powder, which has excellent storage stability (reliability), and a method for producing the same. A silver-coated copper powder obtained by coating the surface of a copper powder, which is obtained by the atomizing method or the like, with 5 wt % or more (with respect to the silver-coated copper powder) of a silver containing layer of silver or a silver compound, is added to a gold plating solution, which is a potassium gold cyanide solution (to which at least one of tripotassium citrate monohydrate, anhydrous citric acid and L-aspartic acid is preferably added), to cause 0.01 wt % or more (with respect to the silver-coated copper powder) of gold to be supported on the surface of the copper powder coated with the silver containing layer.

There is provided a silver-coated copper powder, which has excellent storage stability (reliability), and a method for producing the same. A silver-coated copper powder obtained by coating the surface of a copper powder, which is obtained by the atomizing method or the like, with 5 wt % or more (with respect to the silver-coated copper powder) of a silver containing layer of silver or a silver compound, is added to a gold plating solution, which is a potassium gold cyanide solution (to which at least one of tripotassium citrate monohydrate, anhydrous citric acid and L-aspartic acid is preferably added), to cause 0.01 wt % or more (with respect to the silver-coated copper powder) of gold to be supported on the surface of the copper powder coated with the silver containing layer.

A method for producing a plated formed product includes: a step (1) of forming on a substrate of the substrate having a metal film a resin film of a photosensitive resin composition containing a sulfur-containing compound having at least one selected from a mercapto group, a sulfide bond, and a polysulfide bond; a step (2) of exposing the resin film; a step (3) of developing the exposed resin film to form a resist pattern film; a step (4) of performing plasma treatment of a substrate having the resist pattern film on the metal film with oxygen-containing gas; and a step (5) of performing, after the plasma treatment, plating treatment with the resist pattern film as a mold.

A method for microstructure modification of conducting lines is provided. An electroplating process is performed to deposit the metal thin film/conducting line(s) with a face-centered cubic (FCC) structure and a preferred crystallographic orientation over a surface of a substrate. The metal thin film/conducting line(s) is subsequently subjected to a thermal annealing process to modify its microstructure with the grain sizes in a range of 5 μm to 100 μm. The thermal annealing process is conducted at the temperature of above 25 degrees Celsius and below 240 degrees Celsius.

Disclosed are methods of preparing a semiconductor substrate having a metal seed layer for a subsequent electroplating operation. In some embodiments, the methods may include contacting the surface of the semiconductor substrate with a plasma to treat the surface by reducing metal oxides thereon and thereafter measuring a post-plasma-contact color signal from said surface, the color signal having one or more color components. The methods may then further include estimating the extent of the oxide reduction due to the plasma treatment based on the post-plasma contact color signal. In some embodiments, estimating the extent of the oxide reduction due to the plasma treatment is done based on the b* component of the post-plasma contact color signal. Also disclosed are plasma treatment apparatuses which may implement the foregoing methods.

Disclosed are pre-wetting apparatus designs and methods. These apparatus designs and methods are used to pre-wet a wafer prior to plating a metal on the surface of the wafer. Disclosed compositions of the pre-wetting fluid prevent corrosion of a seed layer on the wafer and also improve the filling rates of features on the wafer.

Disclosed are pre-wetting apparatus designs and methods. These apparatus designs and methods are used to pre-wet a wafer prior to plating a metal on the surface of the wafer. Disclosed compositions of the pre-wetting fluid prevent corrosion of a seed layer on the wafer and also improve the filling rates of features on the wafer.