Companies Join Forces in Systems Development

摘要

SEMATECH researchers have identified a dual damascene method for interconnect integration that could achieve an aggressive industry target for ultra low-k dielectric materials in semiconductor manufacturing. The two-level metal, dual damascene process uses two Zirkon interlayer dielectric (ILD) films from Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials to demonstrate a copper/ultra low-k (ULK) integration with a k-effective (k_(eff)) value of 2.5. 2.5 is the target set out by the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) for the 45 nm technology generation. By using ULK dielectric films and newly developed flows, the process achieves a lower k-effective result. Selected details of the process were to be presented Sept. 27 in a paper-submitted to the Advanced Metalization Conference (AMC) at Colorado Springs, CO. "The dual damascene integration that our team developed offers a potential solution for blocking precursor penetration and minimizing process-induced damage typically observed with ULK dielectrics containing interconnected pores," said Ward Engbrecht, lead author and a SEMATECH copper low-k integration project engineer. Ultra low-k films are porous materials that are much less dense than organosilicate glasses, the starting material for advanced interconnect technology dielectrics. ULK is critical to advanced semiconductor manufacturing because it will allow metal lines to be packed closer together on a chip with less capacitance-driven delay, which slows chip performance.