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Room Temperature Recrystallization of Electroplated Copper Thin Films: Methods and Mechanisms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2011

D. Walther
Affiliation:
Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, NJ 07974
M. E. Gross*
Affiliation:
Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, NJ 07974
K. Evans-Lutterodt
Affiliation:
Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, NJ 07974
W. L. Brown
Affiliation:
Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, NJ 07974
M. Oh
Affiliation:
Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies, Orlando, FL 32819
S. Merchant
Affiliation:
Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies, Orlando, FL 32819
P. Naresh
Affiliation:
Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, NJ 07974
*
*author to whom correspondence should be addressed: [email protected]
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Abstract

We report a comparison of the room temperature recrystallization of electroplated (EP) copper in blanket films as a function of thickness measured by focused ion beam (FIB) microscope images and sheet resistance measurements. Both sets of data show an increase in rate with film thickness from 0.75νm up to 5νm, while little recrystallization is observed in films thinner than 0.75νm. Interestingly, the recrystallization rates from FIB analysis are consistently faster than those from the sheet resistance measurements. These data suggest that the recrystallization is initiated close to the top surface of the EP Cu film, but that in thinner films a high surface-to-volume ratio allows surface inhibition or pinning to retard the transformation. A Johnson-Mehl-AvramiKolmogorov (JMAK) analysis of the two data sets yields unusually high values for the Avrami exponent μ of up to 7 for the FIB data, while lower values of around 4 are obtained for the sheet resistance data. X-ray diffraction pole figures of the films have also been collected and correlations between the crystallographic texture, film thickness and recrystallization are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2000

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