Reduction of hillocks prior to dielectric barrier deposition in Cu damascene

US7723228B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Applied Materials, Inc. · US

Inventors

• Nagarajan Rajagopalan · Santa Clara, US
• Meiyee Shek · Mountain View, US
• Kegang Huang · Fremont, US
• Bok Hoen Kim · San Jose, US
• Hichem M'Saad · Santa Clara, US
• Thomas Nowak · Cupertino, US

Key dates

• Filing date: May 20, 2003
• Grant date: May 25, 2010
• Expiry date: Feb 24, 2029

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H01L21/32136
• WIPO field: Semiconductors
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

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.