Electroless copper deposition as a seed layer on TiSiN barrier

Electroless deposition of copper as a seeding technology has received considerable attention in back-end-of-line device fabrication. This work explores the effects of plasma processing parameters such as argon gas flow rate and nitrogen plasma treatment time on the properties of electrolessly plated Cu on TiSiN barrier layers. The barrier film was produced by a low-frequency inductively coupled plasma process. The properties of deposited electroless copper are characterized by x-ray diffraction, four-point resistivity probe, atomic force, microscopy, and field emission scanning electron microscope. The-required palladium activation time is greatly reduced on TiSiN compared to TiN. In both cases there exists a preferred (111) crystal orientation in Cu film and the intensity ratio of I(111)/I(200) is very close. The Cu grain size is within the range of 23-34 nm for 84 nm thick film. It is found that argon gas flow rate does not have a significant effect on the resistivity of electroless copper film on TiSiN. However, increasing nitrogen plasma treatment time reduces the resistivity of copper film. The roughness of plated Cu layer largely follows the one of the underlying TiSiN. Good surface coverage of electroless Cu seed layer on TiSiN has been Achieved in our experiment. (C) 2004 American Vacuum Society.