Patent Grant
7371311
This application is related to copending U.S. application Ser. No. 10/682,275, filed on Oct. 8, 2003, entitled “MODIFIED ELECTROPLATING SOLUTION COMPONENTS IN A HIGH-ACID ELECTROLYTE SOLUTION”.
Embodiments of the invention relate generally to the field of electroplating integrated substrates and more particularly to methods for reducing defects by adjusting electroplating solution components in a high-acid electrolyte solution.
During the manufacture of integrated circuits, a semiconductor wafer is deposited with a conductive metal to provide interconnects between the integrated components. Aluminum deposition may be used for this purpose. Copper has recently been found to offer distinct advantages over aluminum as a conductive plating for an integrated circuit substrate. Copper is more conductive than aluminum and can be plated into much smaller features (e.g., trenches and vias) having high aspect ratios. This is an important advantage given the trend toward smaller features. Moreover, the deposition process for aluminum is more costly and complex, requiring thermal processing within a vacuum, whereas electroplating can be used to effect copper plating of semiconductor wafers.
The use of copper plating, however, is not without drawbacks. Two related drawbacks are the problems of proper gap fill and within die (“WID”) thickness variation of the copper plating.
Prior to plating, the semiconductor wafer is patterned with vias and trenches that form the interconnects. With typical conformal electroplating, the electroplate metal will grow at a similar rate over the entire surface being plated. If the surface is not flat, the metal will follow the contours of the surface. Conformal electroplating is not suitable for surfaces having small features, as it tends to result in poor gap fill. That is, such electroplating leaves a seam or hole inside the feature at the end of the plating.
To address the problem of poor gap fill (i.e., seams and voids in the copper plating), a suppressant and accelerator are added to the electroplating bath to suppress copper plating outside the features (in the field regions 115) while accelerating copper deposition at the bottom of the features. The accelerator allows the copper plating to grow faster from within the features, filling the features from the bottom up to avoid the formation of holes and seams in the copper plating. Electroplating using the accelerator is known as bottom-up superfill or momentum electroplating. While the use of accelerator can improve gap fill (i.e., reduce the occurrence of voids and seams), because the copper plating continues to grow at a faster rate over the features even after filling the features, a “hump” may be formed over the features, causing a with-in-die WID thickness variation. WID thickness variation is the step height difference between the copper plating area over a feature region and the copper plating area over a field region.
Another drawback of electroplating is the problem of defects on the copper plating. These defects include wetting-related defects and copper protrusions. Wetting-related defects include, for example, “pit” or “crater” defects, which are holes in the copper plating that extends to the seed layer. The unplated area of the wafer will be destroyed in subsequent processing, so substrates having such defects in their copper plating may be discarded. Copper protrusions are bumps resulting from high-growth copper grains in the seed layer that are replicated on the plating surface. The copper protrusions are typically 20-50 nm in diameter and protrude from the plating surface approximately 50-500 nm.
Typical prior art electroplating solutions contain sulfuric acid with a concentration of approximately 175 grams per liter (“g/l”). This relatively high acid concentration provides high conductivity but can lead to difficulties for larger wafer sizes. For larger wafers (e.g., 12″), the resistance of the wafer and seed layer increases from the edge to the center, which may cause a greater electroplating at the edge of the wafer. This problem is exacerbated when seed layer resistance increases as seed layer thickness is scaled down to aide in gap fill in small features. This problem, known as terminal effect, has led to a trend toward low-acid electroplating solutions.
The invention may be best understood by referring to the following description and accompanying drawings that are used to illustrate embodiments of the invention. In the drawings:
Embodiments of the invention provide methods for reducing electroplating defects by varying the concentration of components in a low-acid electroplating solution. For one embodiment, the concentration of leveler is increased, resulting in a decrease in WID thickness variations. In an alternative embodiment, the concentration of suppressant is increased resulting in reduced occurrence of protrusions and wetting-related defects. Various alternative embodiments include an increased concentration of leveler together with varying concentrations of other components, as well as varying other portions of the electroplating process to further reduce defects.
In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth. However, it is understood that embodiments of the invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known techniques have not been shown in detail in order not to obscure the understanding of this description.
Reference throughout the specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, the appearance of the phrases “in one embodiment” or “in an embodiment” in various places throughout the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments.
Moreover, inventive aspects lie in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus, the claims following the Detailed Description are hereby expressly incorporated into this Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment of this invention.
The prior art electroplating solution also typically includes a leveler concentration of approximately 8 ml/l. In the prior art electroplating solution, leveler serves to reduce stress-related voiding defects. The prior art concentration of leveler (i.e., 8 ml/l) has no discernible effect upon WID thickness variation. Experimentally, increased leveler concentration from 8-12 ml/l reduces the WID thickness variation.
As discussed above, the prior art electroplating solution includes a suppressor concentration of approximately 3.3 ml/l. The suppressor is used in gap fill in conjunction with the accelerator to accelerate copper deposition at the bottom of the features while suppressing copper plating outside the features. The suppressor also acts as a surfactant to lower the surface tension and provide better electroplating.
As with the high-acid electroplating solution, defect levels are a strong function of suppressor. However, as with the leveler, the concentration cannot be increased beyond a certain point without a detrimental affect on gap fill. Moreover, because leveler and suppressor are both organic components, the concentration of both have to be considered in maintaining the carbon level of the electroplating solution sufficiently low so as to provide adequate gap fill. That is, the concentrations of leveler and suppressor should be determined in respect to one another. Experimentally, for a low-acid electroplating solution, a substantial reduction in WID thickness variation and defects is achieved with a suppressor level in the range of 3.3 ml/l-6 ml/l in conjunction with a leveler concentration in the range of 8 ml/l-12 ml/l.
At operation 510 the concentration of leveler is determined. In general, increased leveler concentration decreases WID thickness variation. Leveler concentration may be determined to reduce the WID thickness variation to a specified value. Such specified value may be selected based upon the requirements of the plating planarization processes. In an alternative embodiment, the amount and type of conductive metal is considered in determining the concentration of leveler. In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the leveler concentration is determined to be greater than 12 ml/l. For one embodiment, the leveler concentration is approximately 15 ml/l.
At operation 515, the concentration of suppressor is determined. In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the suppressor concentration is determined by considering the concentration of leveler to substantially reduce defects while maintaining WID thickness variations below a specified value. For one embodiment, the suppressor concentration is determined to be within the range of 3.3 ml/l-6.0 ml/l in conjunction with a leveler concentration within the range of 8 ml/l-12 ml/l. For one embodiment, the combined concentration of leveler and suppressor is limited by poor gap fill (occurrence of voids and seams) resulting from an excess of carbon in the solution. That is, the leveler and suppressor concentrations are determined as a maximum that will still affect proper (acceptable) gap-fill.
At operation 520 concentrations of other electroplating solution components (e.g., chloride and accelerator) are determined. As with a high-acid electroplating solution, the concentration of chloride may be increased to catalyze the suppressor. For one embodiment, the chloride concentration is determined as a minimum that will catalyze the suppressor to provide acceptable gap-fill. For one embodiment, the feature size and aspect ratio are considered in determining the chloride concentration. For one embodiment, the chloride concentration is within the range of 50 milligrams per liter (“mg/l”)-65 mg/l.
For one embodiment, the concentrations of leveler and suppressor are considered in determining the concentration of accelerator. The accelerator, like the leveler and the suppressor, is an organic component. For one embodiment, the accelerator concentration is reduced to allow a maximum concentration of leveler and suppressor. For one embodiment, the accelerator concentration is approximately 1 ml/l for an electroplating solution having a leveler concentration of approximately 12 ml/l and a suppressor concentration of approximately 6 ml/l. For one embodiment, the feature size and aspect ratio are considered in determining the accelerator concentration.
It will be appreciated that embodiments of the invention may consist of less than all of the operations of process 500. For example, one embodiment of the invention consists of determining an increased level of suppressor to reduce defects.
Embodiments of the invention provide methods for reducing electroplating defects by varying the concentration of leveler and suppressor in a low-acid electroplating solution. In one embodiment, the feature size may be considered in determining such concentrations. In alternative embodiments, various portions of the electroplating process, including electroplating current waveform, may also be considered in adjusting the concentration of solution components. In one embodiment, the temperature of the electroplating solution is elevated above 22° C. to increase electromigration resistance. For such an embodiment, the temperature of the electroplating solution is preferably within the range of 22° C.-30° C.
While embodiments of the invention have been described as applicable to wafers having relatively small feature sizes (i.e., less than 0.1 um), alternative embodiments of the invention are applicable to other feature sizes, larger or smaller. For example, wafers having larger features but, with relatively high aspect ratios, would benefit from embodiments of the invention.
Moreover, embodiments of the invention have been described in reference to an electroplating process using a copper electroplate and a silicon wafer. In alternative embodiments, the wafer could be any suitable material, including semiconductors and ceramics. Likewise, the electroplate may be any suitable material, including alloys of copper and sliver or gold, or multilayers of such materials.
While the invention has been described in terms of several embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention is not limited to the embodiments described, but can be practiced with modification and alteration within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. The description is thus to be regarded as illustrative instead of limiting.
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