Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 March 2011
Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) is an emerging ultra-thin film deposition technique for advanced microelectronics applications. Enabling features of ALD are precise control over film thickness, excellent conformality and relative insensitivity to wafer size. Additionally, ALD allows interface and film engineering that can be utilized to maximize device performance within the minimum feature size requirements. This paper reports on the compositional, structural and electrical properties of engineered Ti-Ta-N composite films grown by ALD at 360°C. For a wide range of composition these Ti-Ta-N films exhibit resistivity from 500 to 2000 μω-cm, high density, and 100 % step coverage. Additionally, the ability to control texture by changing film composition is established. Based on experimental results, an approach to grow Composite Engineered Barriers by ALD (CEBA) is described that could provide a solution to the challenging barrier requirements.