Systems, apparatuses, and methods related to the design, fabrication, and manufacture of gallium arsenide (GaAs) integrated circuits are disclosed. Copper can be used as the contact material for a GaAs integrated circuit. Metallization of the wafer and through-wafer vias can be achieved through copper plating processes disclosed herein. To avoid warpage, the tensile stress of a conductive layer deposited onto a GaAs substrate can be offset by depositing a compensating layer having negative stress over the GaAs substrate. GaAs integrated circuits can be singulated, packaged, and incorporated into various electronic devices.