Motorola Corporation

Gregory Norman Hamilton

Sam S Garcia

Bradley Paul Smith

Dean J Denning

Ramnath Venkatraman

Jeffrey T Wetzel

Brian George Anthony

John Mendonca

Daniel J Loop

Md Rabiul Islam

Tze W Poon

A method for forming an improved copper inlaid interconnect (FIG. ) begins by performing an RF preclean operation ( ) on the inlaid structure in a chamber ( ). The RF preclean rounds corners ( and ) of the structure to reduce voiding and improve step coverage while not significantly removing copper atoms from the underlying exposed copper interconnects surfaces ( ). A tantalum barrier ( ) is then deposited where one portion of the tantalum barrier is more tensile than another portion of the tantalum barrier. After formation of the barrier layer ( ), a copper seed layer ( ) is formed over a top of the barrier layer. The copper layer is formed while clamping the wafer with an improved clamp ( ) which reduces copper peeling and contamination at wafer edges. Copper electroplating and chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) processes are then used to complete the copper interconnect structure.

Method of forming a semiconductor device barrier layer

A method of forming a semiconductor device by first providing a substrate in a processing chamber. The substrate has an insulating layer and an opening in the insulating layer. A copper barrier layer is formed on the insulating layer and in the opening by providing a plurality of refractory metal atoms and a plurality of silicon atoms in the processing chamber. The atoms are ionized by applying a first bias to the atoms to form a plasma. The substrate is then biased by a first stage bias followed by a second stage bias to accelerate the plasma to the substrate to form the copper barrier layer, where the first stage bias is less than the second stage bias. The copper-containing metal is then deposited on the copper barrier layer over the insulating layer and in the opening. The present invention further includes a semiconductor device formed by the above method.

Semiconductor device with a copper barrier layer and formation thereof

Growing community of inventors

Pflugerville, TX, United States of America

Gregory Norman Hamilton