Study of Ni metallization in macroporous Si using wet chemistry for radio frequency cross-talk isolation in mixed signal integrated circuits

A highly conductive moat or Faraday cage of through-the-wafer thickness in Si substrate was proposed to be effective in shielding electromagnetic interference thereby reducing radio frequency (RF) cross-talk in high performance mixed signal integrated circuits. Such a structure was realized by metallization of selected ultra-high-aspect-ratio macroporous regions that were electrochemically etched in p^- Si substrates. The metallization process was conducted by means of wet chemistry in an alkaline aqueous solution containing Ni²⁺ without reducing agent. It is found that at elevated temperature during immersion, Ni²⁺ was rapidly reduced and deposited into macroporous Si and a conformal metallization of the macropore sidewalls was obtained in a way that the entire porous Si framework was converted to Ni. A conductive moat was as a result incorporated into p^- Si substrate. The experimentally measured reduction of crosstalk in this structure is 5~18 dB at frequencies up to 35 GHz. © 2011 by the authors.