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Full-Text Articles in Physics
Ruco To Extend The Scalability Of Ultra-Thin Direct Plate Liners, Daniel Verne Greenslit
Ruco To Extend The Scalability Of Ultra-Thin Direct Plate Liners, Daniel Verne Greenslit
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
In traditional semiconductor technology a sputtered copper seed layer is used to improve the adhesion, microstucture, and electromigration characteristics of electrochemically deposited (ECD) copper. The seed layer is deposited on top of a Ta/TaN stack. The Ta layer acts as an adhesion and nucleation layer for the copper seed and the TaN serves as a diffusion barrier for the Cu. As the line widths continue to shrink, scaling each of these layers becomes more difficult. It would be advantageous for the interconnect to be composed of as much copper as possible, transitioning from the traditional liner seed stack to a …
Nucleation, Wetting And Agglomeration Of Copper And Copper-Alloy Thin Films On Metal Liner Surfaces, Stephanie Florence Labarbera
Nucleation, Wetting And Agglomeration Of Copper And Copper-Alloy Thin Films On Metal Liner Surfaces, Stephanie Florence Labarbera
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
One of the key challenges in fabricating narrower and higher aspect ratio interconnects using damascene technology has been achieving an ultra-thin (~2 nm) and continuous Cu seed coverage on trench sidewalls. The thin seed is prone to agglomeration because of poor Cu wetting on the Ta liner. Using in-situ conductance measurements, the effect of lowering the substrate temperature during Cu seed deposition has been studied on tantalum (Ta) and ruthenium (Ru) liner surfaces. On a Ta surface, it was found that lowering the deposition temperature to -65°C increases the nucleation rate of the Cu thin film, and reduces the minimum …