Electroless CoWP as a Diffusion Barrier between Electroless Copper and Silicon.

In this work, an electroless CoWP film deposited on a silicon substrate as a diffusion barrier for electroless Cu and silicon has been studied. Four different Cu 120 nm/CoWP/Si stacked samples with 30, 60, 75, and 100 nm electroless CoWP films were prepared and annealed in a rapid thermal annealing (RTA) furnace at 300°C to 800°C for 5 min. The failure behavior of the electroless CoWP film in the Cu/CoWP/Si sample and the effect of CoWP film thickness on the diffusion barrier properties have been investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and sheet resistance measurements. The composition of the electroless CoWP films was 89.4 at.% Co, 2.4 at.% W, and 8.2 at.% P, as determined by energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS). A 30 nm electroless CoWP film can prevent copper penetration up to 500°C, and a 75 nm electroless CoWP film can survive at least up to 600°C. Therefore, increasing the thickness of electroless CoWP films effectively increases the failure temperature of the Cu/CoWP/Si samples. The observations of SEM and TEM show that interdiffusion of the copper and cobalt causes the failure of the electroless CoWP diffusion barriers in Cu/CoWP/Si during thermal annealing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]