Patent · US Active

Apparatus for plasma-enhanced physical vapor deposition of copper with RF source power applied through the workpiece with a lighter-than-copper carrier gas

US7820020B2 · kind B2 · utility

3Cited by
81References
16Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMay 25, 2005
Grant dateOct 26, 2010
Priority date
Expiry dateDec 19, 2027

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH01L21/76844
  • WIPO fieldElectrical machinery, apparatus, energy
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method of performing physical vapor deposition of copper onto an integrated circuit in a vacuum chamber of a plasma reactor includes providing a copper target near a ceiling of the chamber, placing an integrated circuit wafer on a wafer support pedestal facing the target near a floor of the chamber, introducing a carrier gas into the vacuum chamber having an atomic weight substantially less than the atomic weight of copper, maintaining a target-sputtering plasma at the target to produce a stream comprising at least one of copper atoms and copper ions flowing from the target toward the wafer support pedestal for vapor deposition, maintaining a wafer-sputtering plasma near the wafer support pedestal by capacitively coupling plasma RF source power to the wafer-sputtering plasma, and accelerating copper ions of the wafer sputtering plasma in a direction normal to a surface of the wafer support pedestal.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.