Texas Instruments Corporation

Novellus Systems Incorporated

Peter John Holverson

Anshu A Pradhan

Roey Shaviv

Sanjay Gopinath

Sudtida Lavangkul

Methods of forming metal interconnections of an integrated circuit include electroplating two or more metal layers over a metal seed layer, rinsing each of the metal layers with deionized water after the electroplating, and drying each of the metal layers after the rinsing. After forming a last metal layer, the two or more metal layers are annealed thereby forming a final metal layer, resulting in a low defect density of the final metal layer.

Multi-pass plating process with intermediate rinse and dry

A method includes electroplate depositing a first metal layer to a first thickness on a metal seed layer, rinsing the first metal layer with deionized water, and after the first rinse process, drying the wafer. The method also includes performing one or more additional electroplating processes that respectively deposit an additional metal layer to a second thickness over the first metal layer, performing an additional rinse process that rinses the additional metal layer with deionized water, and performing an additional drying processes that dries the wafer.

A layer of diffusion barrier or seed material is deposited on a semiconductor substrate having a recessed feature. The method may include a series of new deposition cycles, for example, a first net deposition cycle and a second net deposition cycle. The first net deposition cycle includes depositing a first deposited amount of the diffusion barrier or seed material and etching a first etched amount of the diffusion barrier or seed material. The second net deposition cycle including depositing a second deposited amount of the diffusion barrier or seed material and etching a second etched amount of the diffusion barrier or seed material. At least one of the process parameters of the first cycle differs from that of the second allows providing a graded deposition effects to reduce a risk of damaging any under layers and dielectric. A deposited layer of diffusion barrier or seed material is generally more conformal.

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Dallas, TX, United States of America

Peter John Holverson