This invention relates to the fabrication of integrated circuit copper interconnects during the semiconductor manufacturing process.
Stress induced voiding in copper interconnects is reduced through the use of a two step electroplating process. This invention is described with reference to the attached figures. The figures are not drawn to scale and they are provided merely to illustrate the invention. Several aspects of the invention are described below with reference to example applications for illustration. It should be understood that numerous specific details, relationships, and methods are set forth to provide a full understanding of the invention. One skilled in the relevant art, however, will readily recognize that the invention can be practiced without one or more of the specific details or with other methods. In other instances, well-known structures or operations are not shown in detail to avoid obscuring the invention.
Referring to the drawings,
Metal interconnects 30 properly route electrical signals and power throughout the integrated circuit. In the example application, the metal interconnects 30 are comprised of copper. The dielectric material 20 electrically insulates the metal interconnects 30.
The metal interconnect layer shown in
Referring to
Step 310 is the formation of a copper seed layer 30c over the patterned dielectric 20. However, it is within the scope of the invention to deposit a layer of barrier metal (such as Ta, TaN or TaN/Ta bi-layer) before forming the copper seed layer 30c in order to prevent copper diffusion into the dielectric layer and also to improve the adhesion between the copper interconnect and the dielectric layer.
Referring now to
In the best mode application, the starting current level is an intensity that causes smaller initial copper grains to form on the copper seed. Specifically, the current level used is a level that attracts initial copper grains having a diameter smaller than the smallest interconnect feature width 50. During this first step of the super-fill electroplating process, a first layer 30d of smaller initial copper grains is formed over the copper seed 30c.
Once the small interconnect spaces are filled, the current used for the electroplating process is lowered so that a larger size of initial copper grains are attracted to the copper seed layer 30c. In the best mode application, a second current level is used to form a second layer 30e of larger initial copper grains over the first layer of initial copper grains 30d, as shown in
In the best mode application the first step is to deposit a first layer having a grain size smaller than the smallest feature. This is followed by a second step where the current is lowered to a second level to attract larger initial grains and complete the super-filling of the larger features. However it is within the scope of the invention to vary the current level in any manner to attract initial grain sizes to the copper seed 30c in any sequence. For example, in the first electroplating step (320) a current that creates initial grain sizes larger than the smallest features may be used (thereby supper-filling the larger features), followed by a second electroplating step (330) where the current level is increased to create initial grain sizes that are smaller than the smallest features (thereby supper-filling the smallest features).
For the dual damascene metal interconnect structure shown in
Referring again to
The fabrication process now continues until the integrated circuit is complete. Generally the next fabrication step is a Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP) process that removes the excessive copper, planarizes the surface, and thereby creates the final copper interconnects structures 30 shown in
Various additional modifications to the invention as described above are within the scope of the claimed invention. For example, instead of performing an anneal at step 340, the anneal may be performed at any point (or numerous points) in the fabrication of the semiconductor wafer. Furthermore, the invention may be used to form the copper interconnects for metal interconnect levels having different structures than the single or dual damascene structures described above. Moreover, any initial grain sizes may be deposited on the copper seed using the above described invention. The larger grain sizes will reduce the resistivity of the final copper interconnect 30 and also reduce stress induced voiding.
While various embodiments of the present invention have been described above, it should be understood that they have been presented by way of example only, and not limitation. Numerous changes to the disclosed embodiments can be made in accordance with the disclosure herein without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present invention should not be limited by any of the above described embodiments. Rather, the scope of the invention should be defined in accordance with the following claims and their equivalents.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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6451682 | Fujikawa et al. | Sep 2002 | B1 |
6709562 | Andricacos et al. | Mar 2004 | B1 |
6709970 | Park et al. | Mar 2004 | B1 |
6753251 | Ritzdorf et al. | Jun 2004 | B1 |
6861354 | Uzoh et al. | Mar 2005 | B1 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20050023688 A1 | Feb 2005 | US |