International Business Machines Corporation

Other

Robert Rosenberg

Bernard S Meyerson

Michael Wayne Lane

Daniel C Edelstein

Kenneth Parker Rodbell

Thomas M Shaw

Fenton Read McFeely

John Ulrich Knickerbocker

Thomas H DiStefano

Jerome J Cuomo

Carlos Juan Sambucetti

Andrew Ramsay Knox

Chao-Kun Hu

Stefanie Ruth Chiras

Anthony K Stamper

Tak H Ning

Sampath Purushothaman

Timothy Joseph Dalton

Robert H Dennard

Terry Allen Spooner

Conal Eugene Murray

Satyanarayana Venkata Nitta

Deborah A Neumayer

Jeffrey Curtis Hedrick

Stephen Edward Greco

Karen A Nummy

Robert B Laibowitz

Stephan Alan Cohen

John Jacob Yurkas

Judith Marie Rubino

Peter Richard Duncombe

Martin Revitz

Russell C Lange

Cevdet Ismail Noyan

Jeffrey L Blouse

Inge G Fulton

Kie Y Ahn

Rajiv V Joshi

Dureseti Chidambarrao

Cyril Cabral, Jr

Timothy Dooling Sullivan

Sandra Guy Malhotra

Kim Yang Lee

Ronald G Filippi

Harold John Hovel

Vishnubhai Vitthalbhai Patel

James N Humenik

Roy Arthur Carruthers

Christopher H Bajorek

Ismail C Noyan

Richard Andre Wachnik

King-Ning Tu

James McKell Edwin Harper

Hans S Rupprecht

Alan B Fowler

Philippe Mark Vereecken

James M Brownlow

Fenton Reed Mc Feely

A ballast block has a uniquely designed framework consisting of lightweight, pre-fabricated, metal panel members and cross-bracing and elongated bracing members. The various components of the ballast block framework are compactly bundled and shipped to the end use location for assembly on-site. Once assembled, the ballast block framework is properly positioned on its permanent, end use location and concrete or equivalent ballast material is poured into the framework, completely filling its internal space. The ballast block can be sized and fabricated for the specific desired purpose.

Framed modular ballast block and method of construction

In integrated circuit technology; an electromigration and diffusion sensitive conductor of a metal such as copper and processing procedure therefore is provided, wherein, at a planarized chemical mechanical processed interfacing surface, the conductor metal is positioned in a region of a selectable low K eff dielectric material surrounded by a material selected to be protection from outdiffusion and a source of a film thickness cap that is to form over the conductor metal and/or serve as a catalytic layer for electroless selective deposition of a CoWP capping .

Formation of aligned capped metal lines and interconnections in multilevel semiconductor structures

A conducting material comprising: a conducting core region comprising copper and from 0.001 atomic percent to 0.6 atomic percent of one or more metals selected from iridium, osmium and rhenium; and an interfacial region. The interfacial region comprises at least 80 atomic percent or greater of the one or more metals. The invention is also directed to a method of making a conducting material comprising: providing an underlayer; contacting the underlayer with a seed layer, the seed layer comprising copper and one or more metals selected from iridium, osmium and rhenium; depositing a conducting layer comprising copper on the seed layer, and annealing the conducting layer at a temperature sufficient to cause grain growth in the conducting layer, yet minimize the migration of the one or more alloy metals from the seed layer to the conducting layer. The method further comprises polishing the conducting layer to provide a polished copper surface material, and annealing the polished copper surface material at a temperature to cause migration of the one or more metals from the seed layer to the polished surface to provide an interfacial region in contact with a copper conductor core region. The interfacial region and the copper conductor core region comprise the one or more metals.

Metal capped copper interconnect

The idea of the invention is to coat the free surface of patterned Cu conducting lines in on-chip interconnections (BEOL) wiring by a 1-20 nm thick metal layer prior to deposition of the interlevel dielectric. This coating is sufficiently thin so as to obviate the need for additional planarization by polishing, while providing protection against oxidation and surface, or interface, diffusion of Cu which has been identified by the inventors as the leading contributor to metal line failure by electromigration and thermal stress voiding. Also, the metal layer increases the adhesion strength between the Cu and dielectric so as to further increase lifetime and facilitate process yield. The free surface is a direct result of the CMP (chemical mechanical polishing) in a damascene process or in a dry etching process by which Cu wiring is patterned. It is proposed that the metal capping layer be deposited by a selective process onto the Cu to minimize further processing. We have used electroless metal coatings, such as CoWP, CoSnP and Pd, to illustrate significant reliability benefits, although chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of metals or metal forming compounds can be employed.

Reduced electromigration and stressed induced migration of copper wires by surface coating

The present invention is directed to an alpha-W layer which is employed in interconnect structures such as trench capacitors or damascene wiring levels as a diffusion barrier layer. The alpha-W layer is a single phased material that is formed by a low temperature/pressure chemical vapor deposition process using tungsten hexacarbonyl, W(CO), as the source material.

Ultra thin, single phase, diffusion barrier for metal conductors

Copper conductor

A method for forming a porous dielectric material layer in an electronic structure and the structure formed are disclosed. In the method, a porous dielectric layer in a semiconductor device can be formed by first forming a non-porous dielectric layer, then partially curing, patterning by reactive ion etching, and final curing the non-porous dielectric layer at a higher temperature than the partial curing temperature to transform the non-porous dielectric material into a porous dielectric material, thus forming a dielectric material that has a low dielectric constant, i.e. smaller than 2.6. The non-porous dielectric material may be formed by embedding a thermally stable dielectric material such as methyl silsesquioxane, hydrogen silsesquioxane, benzocyclobutene or aromatic thermoset polymers with a second phase polymeric material therein such that, at the higher curing temperature, the second phase polymeric material substantially volatilizes to leave voids behind forming a void-filled dielectric material.

Method for forming a porous dielectric material layer in a semiconductor device and device formed

The barrier material of the invention provides for the electrodeposition of copper. The barrier layer includes a dielectric interface surface region, and a copper interface surface region with at least 50 atom percent of a copper interface metal. In particular, the barrier layer of the invention provides for the electrodeposition of copper or copper alloy directly onto the copper interface region of the barrier layer in a direct electrodeposition process. The process includes providing a dielectric layer disposed on an underlayer, contacting a barrier layer to the dielectric layer, and depositing a conducting layer onto the barrier layer.

Process of forming copper structures

A barrier material that is particularly suited as a barrier layer in copper interconnects structures found in semiconductor structures. The barrier layer contains one or more regions with one region containing at least 50 atom percent of a copper interface metal. The copper interface metal is selected from ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, silver, gold, platinum, iridium, selenium, tellurium, or alloys thereof. The barrier layer also contains a dielectric interface material.

Barrier material for copper structures

An amorphous dielectric material having a dielectric constant of 10 or greater is provided herein for use in fabricating capacitors in integrated circuit applications. The amorphous dielectric material is formed using temperatures below 450&deg; C.; therefore the BEOL metallurgy is not adversely affected. The amorphous dielectric material of the present invention exhibits good conformality and a low leakage current. Damascene devices containing the capacitor of the present invention are also disclosed.

BEOL decoupling capacitor

An electrical conductor for use in an electronic structure is disclosed which includes a conductor body that is formed of an alloy including between about 0.001 atomic % and about 2 atomic % of an element selected from the group consisting of Ti, Zr, In, Sn and Hf; and a liner abutting the conductor body which is formed of an alloy that includes Ta, W, Ti, Nb and V. The invention further discloses a liner for use in a semiconductor interconnect that is formed of a material selected from the group consisting of Ti, Hf, In, Sn, Zr and alloys thereof, TiCu , Ta Ti , Ta , Hf , Ta , In , Ta Sn , Ta Zr .

Interconnects with Ti-containing liners

A method for forming a porous dielectric material layer in an electronic structure and the structure formed are disclosed. In the method, a porous dielectric layer in a semiconductor device can be formed by first forming a non-porous dielectric layer, then partially curing, patterning by reactive ion etching, and final curing the non-porous dielectric layer at a higher temperature than the partial curing temperature to transform the non-porous dielectric material into a porous dielectric material, thus achieving a dielectric material that has significantly improved dielectric constant, i.e. smaller than 2.6. The non-porous dielectric material may be formed by embedding a thermally stable dielectric material such as methyl silsesquioxane, hydrogen silsesquioxane, benzocyclobutene or aromatic thermoset polymers with a second phase polymeric material therein such that, at the higher curing temperature, the second phase polymeric material substantially volatilizes to leave voids behind forming a void-filled dielectric material.

The present invention is directed to an alpha-W layer which is employed in interconnect structures such as trench capacitors or damascene wiring levels as a diffusion barrier layer. The alpha-W layer is a single phased material that is formed by a low temperature/pressure chemical vapor deposition process using tungsten hexacarbonyl, W(CO) , as the source material.

A process for producing a multi-level semiconductor device having metal interconnections with insulating passivation layers and the product produced thereby. The product and process improve the resistance of the metallization interconnections to extrusion-short electromigration failures by preventing the insulating passivation layers from cracking. The product and process also reduce the level of resistance saturation or the maximum resistance shift caused by electromigration. By replacing wide-line metallization interconnection conducting lines surrounded by insulating passivation layers with two or more narrow, parallel conducting lines having aspect ratios less than or equal to unity with passivation layers located in between, the incidence of passivation cracking and extrusion-short failures is reduced. The process is especially suited for use in multi-level wiring structures in which the wiring levels have diffusion barriers between the wiring levels caused by redundant metallization layers, interlevel connections, or both.

Process for producing metal interconnections and product produced thereby

Growing community of inventors

Cortlandt Manor, NY, United States of America

Robert Rosenberg