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Electromigration (EM) lifetime characteristics and failure mechanism were investigated for Cu/porous-low-k interconnects and compared to Cu/oxide. The porous low-k dielectric was JSR LKD-5109TM, an MSQ-based spin-on organosilicate material with k = 2.2. The activation energies for EM failure were found to be 0.9 - 1.0 eV for the porous MSQ and 0.8 eV for oxide while the current density exponents for both materials were found to be similar, 1.2 - 1.3. This range of activation energies are commonly associated with mass transport at the Cu/cap-layer interface and suggest a similar mass transport mechanism; interfacial diffusion. Porous MSQ structures showed the same distinct failure morphology as observed in other Cu/low-k interconnects: voiding at the cathode and lateral Cu extrusion at the anode under the cap layer, which seems to be related to the thermo-mechanical properties of Cu/low-k interconnects. The shorter lifetime characteristics of Cu/low-k interconnects comparing to Cu/oxide can be attributed to a smaller back stress, due to less thermomechanical confinement. Results of this study indicate that thermo-mechanical properties of low-k interconnects are important parameters in controlling EM reliability of Cu/low-k interconnects.

An electromigration study has determined the lifetime characteristics and failure mode of dual-damascene Cu/oxide interconnects at temperatures ranging between 200 and 325 °C at a current density of 1.0 MA/cm2. A novel test structure design is used which incorporates a repeated chain of “Blech-type” line elements. The large interconnect ensemble permits a statistical approach to addressing interconnect reliability issues using typical failure analysis tools such as focused ion beam imaging. The larger sample size of the test structure thus enables efficient identification of “early failure” or extrinsic modes of interconnect failure associated with process development. The analysis so far indicates that two major damage modes are observable: (1) via-voiding and (2) voiding within the damascene trench.

In this paper, we present some results of the newly developed on-wafer photothermal measurement. To study thermal anisotropy, the out-of-plane thermal diffusivity measured from this technique is compared with the in-plane thermal diffusivity by measured by ISTS [1]. In addition to the thermal properties, the agreement with mechanical [2] and optical properties are also shown. The significance of different thermal performance between low K dielectric medium materials and SiO2 suggests that greater attention should be paid to thermal properties for integrated devices with low K materials.

The adhesion of Al(Cu-Si) line structures on thin films of BPDA-PDA with different surface preconditioning were examined by measuring the deformation energy of the metal and interface. The properties of BPDA-PDA/Al(Cu-Si) were examined with atomic force microscopy (AFM). Although different sputtering treatments profoundly affect the adhesive properties, the sputtering does not appreciably change the topology of the BPDA-PDA. We also found evidence that even though the thickness of the interface can be very small (3–5 nm), the polymer/metal interface can greatly affect the deformation behavior of the entire system.