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. 21, 2010
Filed:
Dec. 03, 2009
Ananda Banerji, West Linn, OR (US);
George Andrew Antonelli, Portland, OR (US);
Jennifer O'ioughlin, Portland, OR (US);
Mandyam Sriram, Beaverton, OR (US);
Bart Van Schravendijk, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Seshasayee Varadarajan, Lake Oswego, OR (US);
Ananda Banerji, West Linn, OR (US);
George Andrew Antonelli, Portland, OR (US);
Jennifer O'Ioughlin, Portland, OR (US);
Mandyam Sriram, Beaverton, OR (US);
Bart van Schravendijk, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Seshasayee Varadarajan, Lake Oswego, OR (US);
Novellus Systems, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
Protective caps residing at an interface between metal lines and dielectric diffusion barrier (or etch stop) layers are used to improve electromigration performance of interconnects. Protective caps are formed by depositing a source layer of dopant-generating material (e.g., material generating B, Al, Ti, etc.) over an exposed copper line, converting the upper portion of the source layer to a passivated layer (e.g., nitride or oxide) while allowing an unmodified portion of a dopant-generating source layer to remain in contact with copper, and, subsequently, allowing the dopant from the unmodified portion of source layer to controllably diffuse into and/or react with copper, thereby forming a thin protective cap within copper line. The cap may contain a solid solution or an alloy of copper with the dopant.