Journal article
Transmission electron microscopy studies of brown and golden titanium nitride thin films as diffusion barriers in very large scale integrated circuits
Journal of vacuum science & technology. A, Vacuum, surfaces, and films, v 6(3), pp 1602-1608
May 1988
Abstract
The usefulness of reactively sputtered TiN as a diffusion barrier in the AlTiN/Ti/Si metallization scheme in very large scale integration was reported in a previous publication. Two types of TiN thin films were studied in these experiments. Depending on the applied substrate bias voltage, the resulting TiN films can have different properties. Under no‐bias conditions, dark brown colored films (called B films) with low density (3.22 g/cm3), high electrical resistivity (∼400 μΩ cm), and 5%–8% O2 are obtained. A+ ‐75 V dc substrate bias, bright golden colored films (called G films) with high density (∼5.0 g/cm3), low resistivity (∼20 μΩ cm), and negligible O2 are obtained. Even though the B films contain more O2, the G films were found to be better diffusion barriers for silicon. To investigate the effect of film microstructure on the diffusion barriers, cross‐sectional and planar transmission electron microscopy samples were used. Both, brown and golden, types of films have columnar grain structure with approximately the same size (∼400–500 Å), contrary to fine‐grained structure observed for G films by some other groups. The columns in the G films increase in size with an increase in distance from the TiN/Si interface, while the grain size remains almost constant in the B films. The intergrain structure also differs considerably; the grains in G films are very closely packed while they are very loosely bound in the B films. The intergrain voids in the B films can act as an easy path for silicon diffusion. Also, these films were studied by Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy, Auger electron spectroscopy, and x‐ray diffraction to understand the diffusion mechanisms.
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Details
- Title
- Transmission electron microscopy studies of brown and golden titanium nitride thin films as diffusion barriers in very large scale integrated circuits
- Creators
- N. Kumar - Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104J. T. McGinn - David Sarnoff Research Center, Princeton, New Jersey 08450K. Pourrezaei - Drexel UniversityB. Lee - RCA (United States)E. C. Douglas - Microelectronics Center, RCA, Somerville, New Jersey 08876
- Publication Details
- Journal of vacuum science & technology. A, Vacuum, surfaces, and films, v 6(3), pp 1602-1608
- Number of pages
- 7
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Science, and Health Systems
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:A1988N974800073
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-84956039609
- Other Identifier
- 991019173433604721
InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Collaboration types
- Industry collaboration
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Materials Science, Coatings & Films
- Physics, Applied