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Effects of Post-annealing and Co Interlayer Between SiNx and Cu on the Interfacial Adhesion Energy for Advanced Cu Interconnections

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Abstract

Effects of Co interlayer and 200 °C post-annealing treatment on interfacial adhesion energy of SiNx/Cu structure were systematically investigated. Initial interfacial adhesion energy of SiNx/Cu structure measured by double cantilever beam test was 0.92 J/m2. The interfacial adhesion energy increased to 2.94 J/m2 with Co interlayer between SiNx and Cu films. After post-annealing treatment at 200 °C for 500 h, the interfacial adhesion energy of SiNx/Co/Cu structure decreased to 0.95 J/m2. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis revealed that the interfacial adhesion energy increased for SiNx/Co/Cu thin films due to CoSi2 reaction layer at SiNx/Co interface, but sharply decreased during post-annealing treatment by SiO2 formation at SiNx/Co interface.

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the MOTIE (Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (10067804 and 20003524) and KSRC (Korea Semiconductor Research Consortium) support program for the development of the future semiconductor device. The authors would like to thank H. O. Kang, and W. J. Hwang form National nanofab center for valuable discussions and test sample preparations.

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Lee, H., Jeong, M., Kim, G. et al. Effects of Post-annealing and Co Interlayer Between SiNx and Cu on the Interfacial Adhesion Energy for Advanced Cu Interconnections. Electron. Mater. Lett. 16, 311–320 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13391-020-00210-7

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