Development of tantalum carbon nitride (TaCN) diffusion barriers for copper metallization

S. C. Sun, H. Y. Tsai, S. J. Wang

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

Abstract

The incorporation of nitrogen in the sputtered tantalum carbide (TaCx) film was investigated to improve its barrier property in Cu metallization. The film's resistivity increases with nitrogen concentration and the deposition rate decreases with increasing nitrogen to argon sputtering ratio. With an optimal N2 to Ar sputtering ratio, the ternary alloy TaCN film was found to achieve a superior thermal stability than that of TaC or TaN barrier. From p+n junction leakage current measurement data, a 600 Å-thick TaCN film was effective in preventing Cu from diffusing into underlying Si after 600 °C annealing in N2 for 30 min. This barrier temperature of TaCN is about 100 °C higher than that of TaCx film without nitrogen incorporation. Since the failure mechanism of TaCN barrier is dominant by the grain boundary diffusion, the improvement is attributed to the reduction of Cu diffusion through the barrier layer by the stuffing of nitrogen atoms in the grain boundaries of TaCx.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)587-591
Number of pages5
JournalAdvanced Metallization Conference (AMC)
Publication statusPublished - 2001
EventAdvanced Metallization Conference 2001 (AMC 2001) - Montreal, Que., Canada
Duration: 2001 Oct 82001 Oct 11

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Chemical Engineering

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