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:
May. 13, 2008
Filed:
May. 20, 2003
Nagarajan Rajagopalan, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Meiyee Shek, Mountain View, CA (US);
Kegang Huang, Fremont, CA (US);
Bok Hoen Kim, San Jose, CA (US);
Hichem M'saad, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Thomas Nowak, Cupertino, CA (US);
Nagarajan Rajagopalan, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Meiyee Shek, Mountain View, CA (US);
Kegang Huang, Fremont, CA (US);
Bok Hoen Kim, San Jose, CA (US);
Hichem M'saad, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Thomas Nowak, Cupertino, CA (US);
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
Unwanted hillocks arising in copper layers due to formation of overlying barrier layers may be significantly reduced by optimizing various process parameters, alone or in combination. A first set of process parameters may be controlled to pre-condition the processing chamber in which the barrier layer is deposited. A second set of process parameters may be controlled to minimize energy to which a copper layer is exposed during removal of CuO prior to barrier deposition. A third set of process parameters may be controlled to minimize the thermal budget after removal of the copper oxide.