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Geometric linewidth and the impact of thermal processing on the stress regimes induced by electroless copper metallization for Si integrated circuit interconnect technology

McNally, Patrick J. orcid logoORCID: 0000-0003-2798-5121, Kanatharana, Jarujit, Toh, B.H.W., McNeill, D.W., Danilewsky, Andreas N., Tuomi, Tiinamaija, Knuuttila, L., Riikonen, J., Toivonen, J. and Simon, R. (2004) Geometric linewidth and the impact of thermal processing on the stress regimes induced by electroless copper metallization for Si integrated circuit interconnect technology. Journal of Applied Physics, 96 (12). ISSN 0021-8979

Abstract
Mechanical strains and stresses are a major concern in the development of copper-based on-chip metallization. Synchrotron x-ray topography (SXRT), micro-Raman spectroscopy, finite element modeling (FEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) have been used to examine the strain fields imposed by electroless Cu metallization on the underlying Si. As expected, we have observed enhanced strain regions close to the metal line edges. These strain fields tend to zero at annealing temperatures approaching 200 °C, and thereafter the magnitudes of the strain fields at 300 °C and 400 °C are much higher, implying a return to a higher strain regime. Although the strain transition point is slightly different from the SXRT result, the FEM results confirm the existence of a zero-strain transition point as a function of thermal anneal. We have also examined the generated stress in Si as a function of Cu linewidth L. We have found that the stress σXX due to the electroless copper metallization is empirically related to the Cu linewidth in terms of an exponential distribution. For Cu linewidths less than 20 µm, the stress magnitudes increased with decreasing Cu linewidth due to the thermal stress in the absence of self-annealing, whereas the stress decreased with increasing linewidths in the range of 60–100 µm due to a relief of the thermal stress possibly via the self-annealing effect. This self-annealing phenomenon was observed using AFM. It is observed that the stresses in the Si shifted to a compressive state after annealing at 400 °C
Metadata
Item Type:Article (Published)
Refereed:Yes
Subjects:Physical Sciences > Thin films
DCU Faculties and Centres:DCU Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Engineering and Computing > School of Electronic Engineering
Research Initiatives and Centres > Research Institute for Networks and Communications Engineering (RINCE)
Publisher:American Institute of Physics
Official URL:http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1811780
Copyright Information:©2004 American Institute of Physics
Use License:This item is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. View License
ID Code:198
Deposited On:06 Feb 2008 by DORAS Administrator . Last Modified 29 Sep 2021 13:22
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