Copper metallization for ULSL and beyond

The investigation of copper for use as an interconnection metal in the ultra large-scale integration (ULSI) era of silicon integrated circuits has accelerated in the past several years. The obvious advantages for using copper to replace currently used Al are related to its lower resistivity (1.7 μΩ-cm vs. 2.7 μω-cm for Al) and its higher electromigration resistance (several orders of magnitude higher compared with Al). The goal of this review is to examine the properties of copper and its applicability as the interconnection metal. A comparison of electromigration behavior of various possible interconnection metal in standard “bulk” state is made. This is followed by a review of the calculations made comparing (a) the RC (resistance × capacitance) time constants of various material systems and (b) the joule heating of the interconnection materials. A comparative study of various metal systems for the application as the interconnect metal is then made. These discussions will clearly establish the superiority of copper over other metals despite certain limitations of copper. We then review the properties, both physical and chemical, and materials science of copper. The concept of using alloys of copper with a minimal sacrifice on resistivity to gain reliability is also discussed. This is followed by the review of the deposition, pattern definition and etching. passivation, need of the diffusion barrier (DB) and adhesion promoter (AP), planarization and dual damascene process using chemical mechanical planarization, and reliability. This review shows that copper will satisfy the needs of the future integrated circuits and provide high performance and reliability as long as we provide an appropriate barrier to diffusion in the underlying devices and the dielectric.