1. A method of processing a substrate, comprising:
applying a coupling agent and a metal ion solution to the substrate; and
applying an activating solution to activate metal ions of the metal ion solution to create a film out of the ions.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising cleaning the substrate to functionalize OH\u2014 groups of the substrate, the coupling agent attaching to the OH-groups.
3. The method of claim 2, further comprising rinsing the substrate with water.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the coupling agent is one of imidizole silane, aminopropyl-trithoxy silane or an aminoethylamino-polyltrimethoxy silane derivative.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the coupling agent is one of imidizole silane or aminopropyl-trithoxy silane and the ions are ions from the platinum group, so that the metal film is made out of a metal from the platinum group.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the coupling agent is an aminoethylamino-polyltrimethoxy silane derivative and the ions are cobalt, nickel or copper ions so that the metal film is a cobalt, nickel or copper film.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the coupling agent is applied at a temperature of between 50\xb0 C. and 70\xb0 C.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein the activating solution is hypophosphorus acid or dimethylamine borane.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the activating solution is applied at a temperature of between 50\xb0 C. and 70\xb0 C.
10. The method of claim 1, further comprising repeating:
applying a coupling agent and a metal ion solution to the substrate; and
applying an activating solution to activate the metal ions to create the film out of the ions.
11. The method of claim 1, further comprising annealing the metal film to remove the coupling agent.
12. The method of claim 11, wherein the metal film is annealed at a temperature of below 320\xb0 C.
13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
forming a trench in the substrate;
forming a barrier layer on a base and on sidewalls of the trench, wherein the metal film is a metal seed layer formed on the barrier layers; and
plating a metal structure on the seed layer.
14. The method of claim 13, wherein the seed layer and the metal structure are of the same metal.
15. A method of processing a substrate, comprising:
(1) alternatingly:
(1.1) applying a coupling agent and a metal ion solution to the substrate; and
(1.2) applying an activating solution to activate the metal ions to create a metal film out of the ions; and
(2) annealing the metal film to remove the coupling agent.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein the coupling agent is one of the imidizole silane, aminopropyl-trithoxy silane or an aminoethylamino-polyltrimethoxy silane derivative.
17. The method of claim 15, wherein the activating solution is hypophosphorus acid or dimethylamine borane.
18. A microelectronic structure, comprising:
a substrate having a trench formed therein;
a barrier layer formed on a base and on side walls of the trench;
an atomic layer thickness seed layer formed on the barrier layer; and
a metal structure plated on the seed layer.
19. The microelectronic structure of claim 18, further comprising a processor, the metal structure forming part of the processor.
20. The microelectronic structure of claim 19, wherein the seed layer and the metal structure are of the same metal.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method of imaging one of a fracture and a fault in an earth volume disposed beneath a surface of the earth using a microseismic seismic emission tomography (SET) data set acquired over a data acquisition time period using a plurality of sensors located at a plurality of sensor positions disposed proximate the earth volume, comprising:
selecting a skeletonization time period within the data acquisition time period;
sub-dividing the skeletonization time period into a series of time windows using a time increment;
generating an input data set corresponding to the skeletonization time period, the input data set comprising a plurality of data subsets, each data subset corresponding to a given time window;
transforming the input data set into a plurality of SET spatial volumes, each SET spatial volume being associated with a given data subset and having a plurality of voxels associated therewith;
voxel value filtering each data subset to generate filtered voxel values associated therewith;
after voxel value filtering, stacking at least selected ones of the filtered voxel values to generate stacked filtered voxel values, and
skeletonizing the stacked filtered voxel values to generate a three-dimensional spatial representation of the fracture or fault.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein voxel value filtering further comprises computing at least one local maximum in the voxels of the data subset.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein voxel value filtering further comprises passing voxel values that exceed a predetermined minimum value.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein voxel value filtering further comprises filtering each data subset to pass a predetermined percentage of the highest voxel values associated therewith.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein voxel value filtering further comprises filtering each data subset to pass voxel values that exceed a calculated value computed on the basis of a range of values in the data subset.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein stacking further comprises computing the cumulative sum of the filtered voxel values.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein stacking further comprises computing the maximum value of the filtered voxel values.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein stacking further comprises computing the average of the filtered voxel values.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the voxel values in the SET spatial volumes correspond to semblance values.
10. The method of claim 1, further comprising acquiring the microseismic SET data set.
11. The method of claim 10, further comprising disposing at least some of the plurality of sensors along the surface of the earth.
12. The method of claim 10, further comprising disposing at least some of the plurality of sensors beneath the surface of the earth in a borehole.
13. The method of claim 10, wherein the data acquisition time period ranges between about 1 minute and about one week.
14. The method of claim 1, further comprising acquiring the microseismic SET data set under ambient microseismic energy conditions.
15. The method of claim 1, wherein the skeletonization time period corresponds approximately to a time period over one of which hydraulic fracturing, casing perforation, string shot, and toe shot operations occur.
16. The method of claim 1, wherein the skeletonization time period corresponds approximately to a time period over one of which oil production is initiated and gas production is initiated.
17. The method of claim 1, wherein the skeletonization time period corresponds approximately to a time period over one of which oil production is occurring and gas production is occurring.
18. The method of claim 1, wherein the skeletonization time period corresponds approximately to a time period over one of which oil production is terminated and gas production is terminated.
19. The method of claim 1, wherein the skeletonization time period corresponds approximately to a time period over one of which oil production is reduced and gas production is reduced.
20. The method of claim 1, wherein the skeletonization time period corresponds approximately to a time period over one of which oil production is reduced and gas production is increased.
21. The method of claim 1, wherein the skeletonization time period corresponds approximately to a time period over which an ambient microseismic energy field is recorded.
22. The method of claim 1, wherein voxel value filtering further comprises one of semblance filtering, median filtering, threshold filtering, 2-D filtering, 3-D filtering, coherence filtering, statistical filtering, deconvolution, random noise filtering, static andor dynamic time shifting and correction, muting, and coherent noise rejection.
23. The method of claim 1, wherein the time window ranges between about 0.1 seconds and about 1 hour.
24. The method of claim 1, wherein the time increment ranges between about 0.1 seconds and about one hour.
25. A method of imaging one of a fracture and a fault in an earth volume disposed beneath a surface of the earth using a microseismic seismic emission tomography (SET) data set acquired over a data acquisition time period using a plurality of sensors located at a plurality of sensor positions disposed proximate the volume, comprising:
selecting a skeletonization time period within the data acquisition time period;
sub-dividing the skeletonization time period into a series of time windows using a time increment;
generating an input data set corresponding to the skeletonization time period, the input data set comprising a plurality of data subsets, each data subset corresponding to a given time window;
transforming the input data set into a plurality of SET spatial volumes, each SET spatial volume being associated with a given data subset and having a plurality of voxels associated therewith;
stacking at least selected ones of the voxel values to generate stacked voxel values;
after stacking, voxel value filtering the stacked voxel values to generate filtered stacked voxel values associated therewith, and
skeletonizing the filtered stacked voxel values to generate a three-dimensional spatial representation of the fracture or fault.
26. The method of claim 25, wherein stacking further comprises computing the cumulative sum of the voxel values.
27. The method of claim 25, wherein stacking further comprises computing the maximum value of the voxel values.
28. The method of claim 25, wherein stacking further comprises computing the average of the voxel values.
29. The method of claim 25, wherein stacking further comprises computing at least one local maximum in the voxels of the data subset.
30. The method of claim 25, wherein voxel value filtering further comprises passing voxel values that exceed a predetermined minimum value.
31. The method of claim 25, wherein filtering further comprises filtering each data subset to pass a predetermined percentage of the highest voxel values associated therewith.
32. The method of claim 25, wherein filtering further comprises filtering each data subset to pass voxel values that exceed a calculated value computed on the basis of a range of values in the data subset.
33. The method of claim 25, wherein the voxel values in the SET spatial volumes correspond to semblance values.
34. The method of claim 25, further comprising acquiring the microseismic SET data set.
35. The method of claim 34, further comprising disposing at least some of the plurality of sensors along the surface of the earth.
36. The method of claim 34, further comprising disposing at least some of the plurality of sensors beneath the surface of the earth in a borehole.
37. The method of claim 34, wherein the data acquisition time period ranges between about 1 minute and about one week.
38. The method of claim 25, further comprising acquiring the microseismic SET data set under ambient microseismic energy conditions.
39. The method of claim 25, wherein the skeletonization time period corresponds approximately to a time period over one of which hydraulic fracturing, casing perforation, string shot and toe shot operations occur.
40. The method of claim 25, wherein the skeletonization time period corresponds approximately to a time period over one of which oil production is initiated and gas production is initiated.
41. The method of claim 25, wherein the skeletonization time period corresponds approximately to a time period over one of which oil production is occurring and gas production is occurring.
42. The method of claim 25, wherein the skeletonization time period corresponds approximately to a time period over one of which oil production is terminated and gas production is terminated.
43. The method of claim 25, wherein the skeletonization time period corresponds approximately to a time period over one of which oil production is reduced and gas production is reduced.
44. The method of claim 25, wherein the skeletonization time period corresponds approximately to a time period over which an ambient microseismic energy field is recorded.
45. The method of claim 25, wherein the skeletonization time period corresponds approximately to a time period over one of which oil production is reduced and gas production is increased.
46. The method of claim 25, wherein voxel value filtering further comprises one of semblance filtering, median filtering, threshold filtering, 2-D filtering, 3-D filtering, coherence filtering, statistical filtering, deconvolution, random noise filtering, static andor dynamic time shifting and correction, muting, and coherent noise rejection.
47. The method of claim 25, wherein the time window ranges between about 0.1 seconds and about 1 hour.
48. The method of claim 25, wherein the time increment ranges between about 0.1 seconds and about 1 hour.