The influence of cathode agitation on the residual stress of electroplated gold has been investigated. Using a custom-built plating cell, a periodic, reciprocating motion was applied to silicon substrates that were electroplated with soft gold. A commercially available gold sulfite solution was used to deposit the 0.6 lm thick gold films using a current density of 3.0 mA/cm 2 and a bath temperature of 50°C. By increasing the speed of cathode agitation from 0 to 5 cm/s, the magnitude of the

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... essive stress decreased from À64 to À9 MPa. The results suggest that cathode agitation significantly alters the mass transport within the electrolytic cell and can be used as a method of stress control in gold electroplating. This finding is potentially significant for plating applications in microelectronics and microsystems that require precise stress control.