Adhesion of electroless nickel plating on polished silicon

This work reports a study of the adhesion of electroless nickel plating on polished silicon as a function of several plating variables, namely substrate resistivity, activator composition, plating duration, and plating bath temperature. It is shown that an adhesion strength of ∼100 kg/cm2 or more can be obtained, irrespective of the silicon doping, for plating used in semiconductor devices. However, for this purpose, an appropriate silicon activation step is essential, except when the silicon is heavily N-type doped.