Diffusion barrier properties of amorphous ZrCN films for copper metallization

Cheng Shi Chen, Chuan Pu Liu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

26 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A novel amorphous zirconium carbon nitrides (ZrCN) material was deposited by reactive sputtering using a ZrC target (99.5% in purity) in a mixture of Ar and N2 ambient. The microstructure and mechanical properties of the ZrCN films were examined with respect to N2 pressure. For thermal stability characterization, the stacked structure of Cu/ZrCN/Si was subsequently subject to thermal treatments at temperatures from 300 °C to 900 °C for 30 min in a vacuum tube with the base pressure of 3 × 10-5 torr. The results show that the amorphous ZrCN films exhibit superior mechanical properties to either ZrN or ZrC including hardness and elastic modulus. The stacked samples were shown to be thermally stable up to about 800 °C from Auger electron spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction, where the ZrCN still remains its amorphous phase. The device completely fails at 900 °C and the mechanism is discussed in the paper.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3725-3729
Number of pages5
JournalJournal of Non-Crystalline Solids
Volume351
Issue number49-51
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2005 Dec 1

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Ceramics and Composites
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Materials Chemistry

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