A simple equation for predicting superconformal electrodeposition in submicrometer trenches

We present a single variable first-order differential equation for predicting the occurrence of superconformal electrodeposition. The equation presumes that the dependence of deposition rate on surface coverage of the accelerator is known (e.g., derived from voltammetry experiments)on planar electrodes. A simplified growth geometry, based on the recently proposed mechanism of curvature enhanced accelerator coverage, is used to permit simplification of the trench-filling problem. The resulting solution is shown to reduce computational time from hours to seconds, while yielding reasonably accurate predictions of the parameter values required for trench filling. (C) 2001 The Electrochemical Society.