Reliability improvement of 9 nm-node Cu/low-k interconnects

We have studied electromigration (EM) and stress-induced voiding (SV) behaviors based on our 90 nm-node Cu/low-k interconnect processes, and demonstrated successful improvement of the interconnect reliability. In EM study wide bimodal failure distribution was found only in the particular EM test structure. We identified that it caused by the lack of wettability between Cu and the barrier metal in the vias, and demonstrated that the optimization of the barrier metal thickness could suppress it. In SV behavior, we revealed a mechanism of the voiding under the vias that was due to the initial existence of the nuclei of the void before high temperature storage test. The failure mode was suppressed by optimizing preheat temperature of M2 barrier metal deposition.