Relationship between Grain Structures and Texture of Damascene Cu Lines.

The anisotropic spread of the central peak in a (111) pole figure by x-ray diffraction (XRD) was observed for damascene Cu lines of 0.18-2 µm in width and 0.5 µm in depth. The spread originates from the existence of slightly tilted (111) grains because of inclined sidewalls. The tilted (111) orientation is favorable only for polygranular clusters whose sidewall energies can be minimized simultaneously. Consequently, bamboo grains have an exact <111> orientation, while the polygranular clusters have a tilted <111> orientation. Using this concept, the volume fraction of the bamboo grains and polygranular clusters in the damascene Cu lines were quantified using the XRD pole plots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]