An ultrasound-assisted Sn-Ag-Pd activation method for electroless copper plating was presented in this study. With this activation process, it was shown that the fine catalyst particles were homogeneously distributed with high density on the entire specimen. In addition, it was observed that incubation period occurred during the electroless plating step was decreased owing to the absorption of Ag which holds high catalytic activity. Resulting from the refinement and high densification of catalyst, the defect-free gap-fill was achieved within the 20x nm trench.