Hello,
In a fabrication process I'm running now I have an 200nm Au film deposited
on a Si substrate. The process doesn't allow me to use adhesion layers
like Ti or Cr so I was trying to improve the adhesion of Au to Si by
heating in a convection oven in the nearby of the Au-Si eutectic
temperature, in order to generate the necessary intermixing at the
interface which is usually used in the standard Au-Si eutectic bond.
On the other hand what I observe after the oven treatment is the
considerable formation of Au agglomerates on the surface, which look
sometimes like geometrical fractals.
Has anybody seen something similar and knows how to avoid it, or this
whole approach is just a bad idea?

Thanks
Matteo

KTH - Dept. of Microelectronics