In-situ metal barrier deposition of sputter etching on interconnect structure

Abstract

A method of fabricating a semiconductor device having a dielectric structure on which an interconnect structure is optionally patterned using lithographic and etching techniques, within a single deposition chamber, is provided. The dielectric structure may optionally be covered by diffusion barrier materials prior to a sputter etching process. This sputter etching process is used to remove the native oxide on an underneath metal conductor surface and includes a directional gaseous bombardment with simultaneous deposition of metal neutral. Diffusion barrier materials may also be deposited into the pattern.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates generally to semiconductor wafer fabrication. Background technique [0002] Increasing the density of semiconductor wafers has allowed more components to be placed on the wafer surface, which in turn has reduced the surface wiring area available for components, which has led to the use of multi-level metal layer stacks on the wafer Multilevel metallization schemes. A typical stack starts with a barrier layer formed by silicidation of the silicon surface to create a reduced resistance between the surface and the metal layers. [0003] And if aluminum is used as the conductive material of the metal layer, the barrier layers can avoid alloying between aluminum and silicon, both titanium-tungsten (TiW) and titanium nitride (TiN), and other materials are typically used as barrier layers. [0004] Occasionally, a platinum silicide layer is deposited on top of the exposed silicon prior to the deposition of titanium tungsten (T...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0017] Wafers may also be damaged when conventional argon sputtering is performed on the metal layer. In the exemplary cross-sectional view of a wafer in FIG. , 300' includes a hard mask 301, an IDL 302, and a metal 303, after conventional argon sputtering cleaning, the wafer has been deposited on the field (field) 307', the trench bottom 302', and the gradual change Thin sidewall 306' metal may be removed and damage to hard mask 301' and IDL 302' and to etch profile 304' may occur, again, underlying metal may splatter onto the IDL 302 ' and deposited metal 305' over the

Images