Comparative study of argon and hydrogen/helium plasma treatments on the properties of Cu/SiLK damascene structures for interconnect technology

Li, C.Y.; Zhang, D.H.; Su, Sheng-Han; Lu, Ping; He, Xiaohui; Jia, Guanyi; Chen, Zhe; Wu, Shaoteng; Kumar, R.

doi:10.1016/j.tsf.2004.05.069

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…As a result, the plasma-2 treatment induces more carbon depletion and the plasma-2 treated sample is expected to be more hydrophilic than the plasma-1 treated sample. It is noted that hydrogen can also passivate dangling C-and Si-bonds [8,9].…”

Section: Eftem Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Plasma ash modulation of TDDB thermal activation energy in damascene SiOC:H

Tőkei

Aelst

et al. 2007

Semicond. Sci. Technol.

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During Cu/low-k damascene integration, plasma ash can introduce a thin modified layer on the trench sidewall of low-k dielectrics. This plasma ash modified layer can influence the time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) lifetime distribution. In this paper, we investigated the plasma ash modified layer effect on the TDDB thermal activation energy of a CVD SiOC:H low-k dielectric (k = 3) integrated in Cu damascene structures. We found that for the 'non-modified' SiOC:H low-k dielectric combined with sealing metal diffusion barriers, the TDDB thermal activation energy is close to zero. With the introduction of a plasma ash modified layer, the apparent TDDB thermal activation energy increases. By means of thermal desorption spectroscopy on blanket films and energy-filtered TEM analysis on patterned structures, the increase of TDDB thermal activation energy is correlated with plasma ash induced moisture uptake in the CVD SiOC:H low-k dielectric.

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Section: Eftem Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%