Method of producing an ultra thin electrically conducting film with very low electrical resistance
AssigneeSyracuse University
InventorKlaus Schroder
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An ultra thin film with very low electrical resistance is produced by forming a substrate of a substrate material which forms a metastable bond and depositing a conducting film on the substrate in a vacuum environment in which a base pressure is reduced to a value below 10−5 Torr. The film is a metal, metallic alloy, or multilayered film which includes at least one metallic layer. A 0.1 nm thick manganese film deposited in this way on a germanium substrate has a resistivity which at room temperature is lower than the resistivity of metal films of aluminum and copper with the same thickness prepared the same way.
Claims40
An apparatus, comprising:
- a substrate;
- an electrically conducting film deposited on said substrate, wherein said film is a metal other than Cr, or said film is a metallic alloy other than Cr-alloy when said substrate is Ge or Si, or a multilayered film which includes at least one metallic layer;
- wherein said substrate consists essentially of a substrate material which forms a bond with said film;
- and
- wherein said deposition is in at least a high vacuum environment.
A method for producing an electrically conducting ultra thin film with very low electrical resistance, comprising the steps of:
- forming a substrate in at least a high vacuum environment wherein said substrate consists essentially of a substrate material which forms a bond with said film;
- and
- depositing said film on said substrate in said at least a high vacuum environment without breaking vacuum between steps;
- wherein said film is a metal other than Cr, or said film is a metallic alloy other than Cr-alloy when said substrate is Ge or Si, or a multilayered film which includes at least one metallic layer.
A method of reducing electromigration in a conductive film, comprising the steps of:
- preparing a sequence of at least one adjacent layer on a top, at a bottom, and/or at at least one side of said conductive film in such a way that a total resistance at all interfaces between said conductive film and said at least one adjacent layer, and between pairs of any neighboring layers, is reduced to a lower level than otherwise exists between said conductive film and said at least one adjacent layer, and between pairs of any neighboring layers, thereby leading to reduced inelastic surface and interfacial electron scattering and with it to a reduction in electromigration;
- wherein said conductive film is selected from the group consisting of pure metals and metal alloys, excluding Cr and Cr-alloys when on a Ge or Si substrate;
- and
- wherein said at least one adjacent layer is selected from the group consisting of Ge, Si, As, B, Bi, C, Ga, Se, Te, Fe, Al, W, Mo, Ta, Nb, V, Hf, Zr, Re, semiconducting compounds, halides, and co-deposited mixtures of incompatible systems.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.