Effect of interface layer on growth behavior of atomic-layer-deposited Ir thin film as novel Cu diffusion barrier

Growth and nucleation behavior of Ir films grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD) on different interfacial layers such as SiO₂, surface-treated TaN, and 3-nm-thick TaN were investigated. To grow Ir thin film by ALD, (1,5-cyclooctadiene) (ethylcyclopentadienyl) iridium (Ir(EtCp)(COD)) and oxygen were employed as the metalorganic precursor and reactant, respectively. To obtain optimal deposition conditions, the deposition temperature was varied from 240 to 420 °C and the number of deposition cycles was changed from 150 to 300. The Ir film grown on the 3-nm-thick TaN surface showed the smoothest and most uniform layer for all the deposition cycles, whereas poor nucleation and three-dimensional island-type growth of the Ir layer were observed on Si, SiO₂, and surface-treated TaN after fewer number of deposition cycles. The uniformity of the Ir film layer was maintained for all the different substrates up to 300 deposition cycles. Therefore we suggest that the growth behavior of the Ir layer on different interface layer is related to the chemical bonding pattern of the substrate film or interface layer, resulting in better understand the growth mechanism of Ir layer as a copper diffusion barrier. The ALD-grown Ir films show the preferential direction of (1 1 1) for all the reflections, which indicates the absence of IrO₂ in metallic Ir.