Date of Award

1-1-2013

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

Department of Nanoscale Science and Engineering

Program

Nanoscale Engineering

Content Description

1 online resource (x, 141 pages) : illustrations (some color)

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Eric Eisenbraun

Committee Members

Hassararam Bakhru, Kathleen Dunn, Richard Matyi, Muthumanickam Sankarapandian

Keywords

Thin films, Copper, Transition metal compounds

Subject Categories

Materials Science and Engineering | Physics

Abstract

In traditional semiconductor technology a sputtered copper seed layer is used to improve the adhesion, microstucture, and electromigration characteristics of electrochemically deposited (ECD) copper. The seed layer is deposited on top of a Ta/TaN stack. The Ta layer acts as an adhesion and nucleation layer for the copper seed and the TaN serves as a diffusion barrier for the Cu. As the line widths continue to shrink, scaling each of these layers becomes more difficult. It would be advantageous for the interconnect to be composed of as much copper as possible, transitioning from the traditional liner seed stack to a single layer that could function as a diffusion barrier, adhesion promoter, and a directly plateable surface could improve the extendibility of copper interconnect technology.

Download

Share

COinS