AVS 46th International Symposium
    Manufacturing Science and Technology Group Tuesday Sessions
       Session MS-TuA

Paper MS-TuA8
Simulations of TiN Barrier Films Deposited by I-PVD on High Aspect Ratio Features: Macrostructure and Composition

Tuesday, October 26, 1999, 4:20 pm, Room 611

Session: Interconnect and Integration
Presenter: S.K. Dew, University of Alberta, Canada
Authors: M. Li, University of Alberta, Canada
S.K. Dew, University of Alberta, Canada
M.J. Brett, University of Alberta, Canada
T.J. Smy, Carleton University, Canada
Correspondent: Click to Email
TiN films are extensively used as barrier layers for aluminum, tungsten, as well as copper in modern VLSI metallization processing. However, the properties of TiN are significantly dependent upon the microstructure and composition of the film. Physical vapor deposition is a technology commonly adopted for TiN barrier deposition, but recently the ionized variant, I-PVD, has attracted interest for deep sub-micron processes. In this work, by considering the adsorption and desorption of ionic and neutral nitrogen species, N and N2, and the reflection within the micro-features, the film growth simulator, GROFILMS, is used to study the film microstructure and composition over high aspect ratio topography in an I-PVD system. The effects of the film deposition conditions such as the total titanium flux, fraction of titanium ions, partial pressure of nitrogen, degree of nitrogen dissociation, substrate bias and film deposition temperature are investigated. In particular, the simulations demonstrate that ion impact energy and surface diffusion are two major processes determining the properties of TiN barrier films through control of the film density.