Electroless deposition in nanotechnology and ULSI

The technology of electroless metallization was developed enabling one to adequately replace An and Ag with Ni-P or Ni-B alloys in industry and to significantly simplify the metallization process. Other proposed nanotechnologies for the first time allow one to produce photomasks and microdevices with nano-sized adjacent elements of different thicknesses made of various materials by single conventional optical photolithography. These advantages significantly extend functional capabilities of the device and simplify removal of undesirable gases and heat dissipation. The proposed nanotechnologies are much more advantageous and simpler than other expensive and complicated methods such as e-beam, X-ray lithography or production of the devices using light phase shift photomasks. Methods of fabricating the ultra-thin void-free and pore-free electroless coatings on micro-, meso- and nano-sized particles (carbides, borides, nitrides, oxides, diamond, graphite, etc.) are also proposed. These methods allow one to obtain nanostructured composite materials and coatings with the specified properties. The developed technologies have been implemented in industry. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.