Novellus Systems Incorporated

Sanjeev Jain

Somnath S Nag

Bart Jan Van Schravendijk

Jengyi Yu

Haiying Fu

M Ziaul Karim

Atul Gupta

Kenneth P MacWilliams

Ka Shun Wong

Gerrit J Kooi

Two sequential treatments within a chemical vapor deposition chamber, or within sequential chambers without a vacuum break, are performed on a copper layer to clean and passivate the copper surface prior to deposition of a copper diffusion barrier layer or a dielectric layer. The first treatment includes an ammonia, a hydrogen, or a hydrocarbon plasma cleaning of the copper surface followed by a short initiation of an organosilane precursor or a thin silicon nitride layer. A copper diffusion barrier layer may then be formed over the pretreated copper surface using an organosilane plasma, with or without a carbon dioxide or a carbon monoxide, or a silane with a nitrogen gas and an ammonia gas. Copper diffusion is retarded and film adhesion is improved for a dielectric layer or a copper diffusion barrier layer on the copper surface.

Systems and methods to retard copper diffusion and improve film adhesion for a dielectric barrier on copper

An amorphous material containing silicon, carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen, provides a barrier/etch stop layer for use with low dielectric constant insulating layers and copper interconnects. The amorphous material is prepared by plasma assisted chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of alklysilanes together with nitrogen and ammonia. Material that at the same time has a dielectric constant less than 4.5, an electrical breakdown field about 5 MV/cm, and a leakage current less than or on the order of 1 nA/cm at a field strength of 1 Mv/cm has been obtained. The amorphous material meets the requirements for use as a barrier/etch stop layer in a standard damascene fabrication process.

Low dielectric constant etch stop films

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Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Sanjeev Jain