Texture and microstructure of thin copper films.

Microstructure is an important factor influencing the reliability of thin film interconnects. The microstructure of copper films is of particular interest because of its use in numerous electronic applications. Pole figure x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microcopy were conducted on copper films deposited by several techniques: sputtering, partially ionized beam deposition, chemical vapor deposition, evaporation, and electroplating. Quantitative texture data are determined from fiber texture plots. A typical copper film consists of three texture components: (111), (200), and random. (220) and (511) texture components are possible under some deposition conditions. Compared to aluminum films, the fraction of the random texture component and the distribution of the (hkl) components in copper films are relatively large. Bimodal grain size distributions are observed in some films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]