Multi-step plasma treatment method to improve CU interconnect electrical performance
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsKeng-Chu Lin, Hui-Lin Chang, I-I Chen, Yung-Chen Lu, Syun-Ming Jeng
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Abstract
A method for plasma treating an exposed copper surface and dielectric insulating layer in a semiconductor device manufacturing process including providing a semiconductor wafer having a process surface including an exposed copper portion and an exposed dielectric insulating layer portion; plasma treating in a first plasma treatment process, the process surface with a first plasma including ammonia (NH3) and nitrogen (N2) plasma to form a copper nitride layer overlying the exposed copper portion; and, plasma treating in a second plasma treatment process the process surface with a second plasma including oxygen (O2).
Claims22
A method for plasma treating an exposed copper surface and dielectric insulating layer in a semiconductor device manufacturing process comprising the steps of:
- providing a semiconductor wafer comprising a process surface having an exposed copper portion and an exposed dielectric insulating layer portion;
- plasma treating the process surface in a first plasma treatment with plasma comprising reduction gas and nitriding gas;
- and,
- plasma treating the process surface in a second plasma treatment comprising oxidizing gas, said second plasma treatment performed without deposition of a material layer.
A method for plasma treating a copper interconnect and low-K IMD layer in a semiconductor device manufacturing process comprising the steps of:
- providing a semiconductor wafer comprising a copper interconnect formed in an IMD layer comprising porous low-k material wherein a process surface comprising an exposed copper portion and an exposed IMD layer portion;
- plasma treating the process surface in a first plasma treatment process with plasma comprising ammonia (NH3) and nitrogen (N2);
- then plasma treating the process surface in a second plasma treatment process with plasma comprising oxygen (O2), said second plasma treatment performed without material layer deposition;
- and,
- then depositing an etch stop layer over the process surface in a PECVD process.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.