Influence of underlying interlevel dielectric films on extrusion formation in aluminum interconnects

Knowledge of the mechanical properties of interlevel dielectric films and their impact on submicron interconnect reliability is becoming more and more important as critical dimensions in ultralarge scale integrated circuits are scaled down. For example, lateral aluminum (Al) extrusions into spaces between metal lines, which become more of a concern as the pitches shrink, appear to depend partially on properties of SiO2 underlayers. In this article nanoindentation, wafer curvature, and infrared absorbance techniques have been used to study the mechanical properties of several common interlevel dielectric SiO2 films such as undoped silica glass using a silane (SiH4) precursor, undoped silica glass using a tetraethylorthosilicate precursor, phosphosilicate glass deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition and borophosphosilicate glass (BPSG) deposited by subatmosphere chemical vapor deposition. The elastic modulus E and hardness H of the as-deposited and densified SiO2 layers are measured by nanoi...

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