Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T06:01:34.598Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Electrical Characterization of Copper Penetration Effects in the Gate Oxide of MOS Devices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2011

François Mondon ,
Jacques Cluzel ,
Denis Blachier ,
Yves Morand ,
Laurent Martel  and
Gilles Reimbold
François Mondon
Affiliation:
LETI (CEA-Grenoble), 38054 Grenoble-Cedex 9, France J. FourierUniversity-Grenoble, France, [email protected]
Jacques Cluzel
Affiliation:
LETI (CEA-Grenoble), 38054 Grenoble-Cedex 9, France
Denis Blachier
Affiliation:
LETI (CEA-Grenoble), 38054 Grenoble-Cedex 9, France
Yves Morand
Affiliation:
ST Microelectronics, 38926 Crolles cedex, France
Laurent Martel
Affiliation:
LETI (CEA-Grenoble), 38054 Grenoble-Cedex 9, France
Gilles Reimbold
Affiliation:
LETI (CEA-Grenoble), 38054 Grenoble-Cedex 9, France
Get access

Abstract

Copper penetration in thermal oxide was investigated using MOS capacitors by annealing at 450 °C and bias-temperature stress at 250 °C. Copper induces minority carrier generation lifetime decay and oxide leakage current increase. Degradation is enhanced by capacitor biasing, which confirms the role of Cu+ ions. The current-voltage characteristics are consistent with Poole-Frenkel model, showing that electron transport proceeds through traps created in the oxide bulk by copper. When a negative bias is applied, copper traps are removed from oxide near SiO2-Si interface and the leakage current is cancelled but the generation lifetime remains nil, copper contamination of silicon surface being not removed.

None of these effects are observed when the copper gate is separated from oxide by a 10 nm TiN layer, proving that this material is an efficient barrier against copper diffusion at 450°C.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 714: Symposium – Materials, Technology and Reliability for Advanced Interconnects and Low-k Dielectrics II , 2001 , L8.12.1
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1. Miyazaki, H., Hinode, K., Homma, Y. and Kobayashi, N., Time-dependent dielectric breakdown of interlevel dielectrics for copper metallization, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., 35, 1685–1689 (1996)Google Scholar
2. Loke, A. L. S., Wetzel, J. T., Townsend, P. H., Tanabe, T., Vrtis, R. N., Zussman, M. P., Kumar, D., Ryu, C. and Wong, S. S., Kinetics of copper drift in low-k polymer interlevel dielectrics, IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, 46, 2178–2187 (1999)Google Scholar
3. Loke, A. L. S., Ryu, C., Yue, C. P., Cho, J. S. H. and Wong, S. S., Kinetics of copper drift in PECVD dielectrics, IEEE Electron Device Lett., 17, 549–551 (1996)Google Scholar
4. McBrayer, J. D., Swanson, R. M. and Sigmon, T. W., Diffusion of metal in silicon dioxide, J. Electrochem. Soc., 133, 1242–1246 (1986)Google Scholar
5. Shacham-Diamand, Y., Dedhia, A., Hoffstetter, D. and Oldham, W. G., Copper transport in thermal SiO2 , J. Electrochem. Soc., 140, 2427–2432 (1993)Google Scholar
6. Raghavan, G., Chiang, C., Anders, P. B., Tzeng, S-M., Villasol, R., Bai, G., Bohr, M. and Fraser, D. B., Diffusion of copper through dielectric films under bias temperature stress, Thin Solid Films, 262, 168–176 (1995)Google Scholar
7. Heiman, F. P., On the determination of minority carrier lifetime from the transient response of an MOS capacitor, IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, 14, 781–784 (1967)Google Scholar
8. Cohen, S., Liu, J., Ivers, T., Armbrust, D., Rodbell, K. P. and Gates, S. M., Characterization of thin dielectric films as copper diffusion barriers using triangular voltage sweep, Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc., 565, pp. 189–196 (1999)Google Scholar
9. Hesto, P., The nature of electronic conduction in thin insulating layers, Instabilities in silicon devices vol. 1, ed. Barbottin, G. and Vapaille, A. (North-Holland, 1986), ch. 5Google Scholar