Amino-terminated, self-assembled monolayers (NH₂-SAMs) are widely used for seeding in electroless metallization, and activation is typically performed in an acidic aqueous suspension of colloidal Pd or Au, generating noble-metal catalytic particles of sizes generally exceeding 10 nm. In this study, we develop a new activation process by which aliphatic NH₂-SAMs immobilize Ni particles on low-k (SiOCH) dielectric layers, and which involves a cost-effective basic aqueous solution simply containing Ni^2 + ions. Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy suggests that the activated SAMs work effectively as diffusion barriers, enabling integration of Cu with SiOCH without interposing a conventional barrier layer. Moreover, as revealed by transmission electron microscopy, the sizes of the Ni particles adsorbed are extremely small (2–3 nm), leading to fast nucleation and the formation of void/seam-free Cu interconnects in 60-nm trenches. Based on the results of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, a new model of changes in the surface structure (and the phase transitions of the seeds) leading to effective seeding is proposed.

端氨基的自组装单分子层（NH ₂ -SAMs）广泛用于化学镀金属中的晶种，并且活化通常在胶体Pd或Au的酸性水悬浮液中进行，生成尺寸通常超过10的贵金属催化颗粒纳米 在这项研究中，我们开发了一种新的活化过程，脂肪族NH ₂ -SAMs通过该过程将Ni颗粒固定在低k（SiOCH）介电层上，并且涉及一种经济高效的碱性水溶液，仅包含Ni ^{2 +}离子。卢瑟福背散射光谱表明，活化的SAM有效地充当了扩散阻挡层，使Cu与SiOCH集成在一起而无需插入常规阻挡层。此外，正如透射电子显微镜所揭示的，所吸附的镍颗粒的尺寸非常小（2-3 nm），导致快速成核并在60 nm的沟槽中形成无空隙/无接缝的Cu互连。基于X射线光电子能谱的结果，提出了导致有效接种的表面结构变化（以及种子的相变）的新模型。