Modified ALD TaN Barrier with Ru Liner and Dynamic Cu Reflow for 36nm Pitch Interconnect Integration

Integration of thermal atomic layer deposition (ALD) TaN films modified by physical vapor deposition post-treatment (PPT) and in-situ plasma treatment (IPT) was investigated on 36nm pitch BEOL structures. The PPT and IPT processes produce an interface more suitable for liner (Co/Ru) and physical vapor deposition (PVD) of Cu seed. This results in improvement in Cu gap-fill for both traditional Cu seed/plating process with 15 Å chemical vapor deposition (CVD) Co liner and dynamic PVD Cu reflow (DCR) on 20 Å CVD Ru liner. The PPT also decreased via resistance (R) by sputtering TaN at bottom of the via. IPT processes densify the ALD films and improve EM performance. A promising integration scheme of 20 Å ALD+IPT TaN/20Å Ru/DCR was developed with 20X improvement in electromigration.