Investigation of Vanadium-based Thin Interlayer for Cu Diffusion Barrier

Recently, scaling down of ULSI (Ultra Large Scale Integration) circuit of CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) based electronic devices become much faster speed and smaller size than ever before. However, very narrow interconnect line width causes some drawbacks. For example, deposition of conformal and thin barrier is not easy moreover metallization process needs deposition of diffusion barrier and glue layer. Therefore, there is not enough space for copper filling process. In order to overcome these negative effects, simple process of copper metallization is required. In this research, Cu-V thin alloy film was formed by using RF magnetron sputter deposition system. Cu-V alloy film was deposited on the plane $SiO_2$/Si bi-layer substrate with smooth and uniform surface. Cu-V film thickness was about 50 nm. Cu-V layer was deposited at RT, 100, 150, 200, and $250^{\circ}C$. XRD, AFM, Hall measurement system, and XPS were used to analyze Cu-V thin film. For the barrier formation, Cu-V film was annealed at 200, 300, 400, 500, and $600^{\circ}C$ (1 hour). As a result, V-based thin interlayer between Cu-V film and $SiO_2$ dielectric layer was formed by itself with annealing. Thin interlayer was confirmed by TEM (Transmission Electron Microscope) analysis. Barrier thermal stability was tested with I-V (for measuring leakage current) and XRD analysis after 300, 400, 500, 600, and $700^{\circ}C$ (12 hour) annealing. With this research, over $500^{\circ}C$ annealed barrier has large leakage current. However V-based diffusion barrier annealed at $400^{\circ}C$ has good thermal stability. Thus, thermal stability of vanadium-based thin interlayer as diffusion barrier is good for copper interconnection.