Electrical properties of sub-100 nm Cu films deposited by electroless plating on amino-terminated silicon oxide activated with Au nano-particles

Self-assembled organic monolayers (SAMs) are good coupling agents and diffusion barriers at Cu/SiO2 and Cu/low-k interfaces and are considered therefore as important elements of future all-wet ULSI metallization with sub-45 nm Cu deposited by electroless plating (ELD). We formed SAM of 3-aminopropyltrimethoxy silane (APTMS) onto SiO2/Si substrate, activated the surface of APTMS with 5, 8, 15 and 25 nm Au nano-particles (AuNPs), deposited (30–100) nm films of Cu by ELD and measured electrical resistivity ρ of the films in the as-deposited state and after vacuum annealing at 220 C. The size of AuNPs was found to be a key factor in getting low resistance sub-100 nm Cu films by ELD. The resistivity ρ ≈ 4 ± 0.8 μΩ·cm – considerably smaller compared to the previously reported data – was achieved with the use of 5 nm AuNPs. XPS and AFM revealed nano-pores, which can contribute to ρ but do not compromise likely the diffusion barrier properties of the SAM.