US Patent Issued to Lam Research on Sept. 23 for "Low temperature direct copper-copper bonding" (Pennsylvania, Oregon Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 23 -- United States Patent no. 12,424,453, issued on Sept. 23, was assigned to Lam Research Corp. (Fremont, Calif.).

"Low temperature direct copper-copper bonding" was invented by Stephen J. Banik II (Philadelphia), Justin Oberst (Beaverton, Ore.), Kari Thorkelsson (Portland, Ore.), Bryan L. Buckalew (Tualatin, Ore.) and Thomas Anand Ponnuswamy (Sherwood, Ore.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Direct copper-copper bonding at low temperatures is achieved by electroplating copper features on a substrate followed by electroplanarizing the copper features. The copper features are electroplated on the substrate under conditions so that nanotwinned copper structures are formed. ...