The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 10, 2002
Filed:
Jun. 07, 2000
Lawrence Alfred Clevenger, Lagrangeville, NY (US);
Ronald Gene Filippi, Wappinger Falls, NY (US);
Kenneth Parker Rodbell, Sandy Hook, CT (US);
Roy Charles Iggulden, Newburgh, NY (US);
Chao-Kun Hu, Somers, NY (US);
Lynne Marie Gignac, Beacon, NY (US);
Stefan Weber, Dresden, DE;
Jeffrey Peter Gambino, Westford, VT (US);
Rainer Florian Schnabel, Hoehenkirchen, DE;
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A dual damascene process capable of reliably producing aluminum interconnects that exhibit improved electromigration characteristics over aluminum interconnects produced by conventional RIE techniques. In particular, the dual damascene process relies on a PVD-Ti/CVD-TiN barrier layer to produce aluminum lines that exhibit significantly reduced saturation resistance levels and/or suppressed electromigration, particularly in lines longer than 100 micrometers. The electromigration lifetime of the dual damascene aluminum line is strongly dependent on the materials and material fill process conditions. Significantly, deviations in materials and processing can result in electromigration lifetimes inferior to that achieved with aluminum RIE interconnects. In one example, current densities as high as 2.5 MA/cm are necessary to induce a statistically relevant number of fails due to electromigration.