title: Oxide impurities in silicon oxide intermetal dielectrics and their potential to elevate via-resistances.
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.
authors.affiliation: 1Physical Analysis Lab,CHD-Fab,Freescale Semiconductor Inc.,Chandler,AZ 85224,USA.
authors.forename: Wentao
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: 2CHD-Fab,Freescale Semiconductor Inc.,Chandler,AZ 85224,USA.
authors.forename: Donavan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Alldredge
authors.affiliation: 2CHD-Fab,Freescale Semiconductor Inc.,Chandler,AZ 85224,USA.
authors.forename: Douglas
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Heleotes
authors.affiliation: 2CHD-Fab,Freescale Semiconductor Inc.,Chandler,AZ 85224,USA.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Elkind
authors.affiliation: 1Physical Analysis Lab,CHD-Fab,Freescale Semiconductor Inc.,Chandler,AZ 85224,USA.
authors.forename: N David
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Theodore
authors.affiliation: 1Physical Analysis Lab,CHD-Fab,Freescale Semiconductor Inc.,Chandler,AZ 85224,USA.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fejes
authors.affiliation: 2CHD-Fab,Freescale Semiconductor Inc.,Chandler,AZ 85224,USA.
authors.forename: Mostafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vadipour
authors.affiliation: 2CHD-Fab,Freescale Semiconductor Inc.,Chandler,AZ 85224,USA.
authors.forename: Bill
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Godek
authors.affiliation: 2CHD-Fab,Freescale Semiconductor Inc.,Chandler,AZ 85224,USA.
authors.forename: Norman
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Lerner