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Oxide Impurities in Silicon Oxide Intermetal Dielectrics and Their Potential to Elevate Via-Resistances

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 May 2014

Wentao Qin ,
Donavan Alldredge ,
Douglas Heleotes ,
Alexander Elkind ,
N. David Theodore ,
Peter Fejes ,
Mostafa Vadipour ,
Bill Godek  and
Norman Lerner
Wentao Qin*
Affiliation:
Physical Analysis Lab, CHD-Fab, Freescale Semiconductor Inc., Chandler, AZ 85224, USA
Donavan Alldredge
Affiliation:
CHD-Fab, Freescale Semiconductor Inc., Chandler, AZ 85224, USA
Douglas Heleotes
Affiliation:
CHD-Fab, Freescale Semiconductor Inc., Chandler, AZ 85224, USA
Alexander Elkind
Affiliation:
CHD-Fab, Freescale Semiconductor Inc., Chandler, AZ 85224, USA
N. David Theodore
Affiliation:
Physical Analysis Lab, CHD-Fab, Freescale Semiconductor Inc., Chandler, AZ 85224, USA
Peter Fejes
Affiliation:
Physical Analysis Lab, CHD-Fab, Freescale Semiconductor Inc., Chandler, AZ 85224, USA
Mostafa Vadipour
Affiliation:
CHD-Fab, Freescale Semiconductor Inc., Chandler, AZ 85224, USA
Bill Godek
Affiliation:
CHD-Fab, Freescale Semiconductor Inc., Chandler, AZ 85224, USA
Norman Lerner
Affiliation:
CHD-Fab, Freescale Semiconductor Inc., Chandler, AZ 85224, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Wentao.Qin@onsemi.com
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Abstract

Silicon oxide used as an intermetal dielectric (IMD) incorporates oxide impurities during both its formation and subsequent processing to create vias in the IMD. Without a sufficient degassing of the IMD, oxide impurities released from the IMD during the physical vapor deposition (PVD) of the glue layer of the vias had led to an oxidation of the glue layer and eventual increase of the via resistances, which correlated with the O-to-Si atomic ratio of the IMD being ~10% excessive as verified by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis. A vacuum bake of the IMD was subsequently implemented to enhance outgassing of the oxide impurities in the IMD before the glue layer deposition. The implementation successfully reduced the via resistances to an acceptable level.

Keywords

high via resistanceoxidationintermetal dielectrictransmission electron microscopy (TEM)TiN
Type
Materials Applications
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , August 2014 , pp. 1271 - 1275
Copyright
© Microscopy Society of America 2014 

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