Atomic layer deposition growth of a novel mixed-phase barrier for seedless copper electroplating applications

A novel plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition-grown mixed-phase/nanolaminate Ru-TaN barrier has been investigated, and it was confirmed that the copper diffusion barrier and direct-plate characteristics of the mixed-phase barrier can be modulated by varying the metal ratio in the film. This liner was subsequently optimized to yield a composition that combines the robust barrier properties of TaN with direct-plate characteristics of Ru. It was found that the deposited multicomponent system consists of individual crystalline and amorphous phase regions distributed across the barrier. The resulting optimized mixed-phase barrier was found to exhibit excellent copper diffusion barrier characteristics in layers as thin as 2 nm. A high degree of (111) texture (>84%) was observed for the direct-plated copper on this Ru-TaN barrier, which was very similar to the electroplated Cu deposited on a physical vapor deposition copper-seed control sample. Additionally, the filling characteristics in sub-50-nm features were found to be equivalent to those of conventionally copper-seeded interconnect structures.