Scalability of plasma enhanced atomic layer deposited ruthenium films for interconnect applications

Ru thin films were deposited by plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition using MethylCyclopentadienylPyrrolylRuthenium (MeCpPy)Ru and N-2/NH3 plasma. The growth characteristics have been studied on titanium nitride or tantalum nitride substrates of various thicknesses. On SiO2, a large incubation period has been observed, which can be resolved by the use of a metal nitride layer of similar to 0.8 nm. The growth characteristics of Ru layers deposited on ultrathin metal nitride layers are similar to those on thick metal nitride substrates despite the fact that the metal nitride layers are not fully closed. Scaled Ru/metal nitride stacks were deposited in narrow lines down to 25 nm width. Thinning of the metal nitride does not impact the conformality of the Ru layer in the narrow lines. For the thinnest lines the Ru deposited on the side wall showed a more granular structure when compared to the bottom of the trench, which is attributed to the plasma directionality during the deposition process. (C) 2012 American Vacuum Society. [DOI: 10.1116/1.3625566]