A novel self-aligned surface-silicide passivation technology for reliability enhancement in copper interconnects

By exposing the giant-grain Cu interconnects in SiH/sub 4/ ambient at 200/spl deg/C and annealing it in Ar ambient at 450/spl deg/C, we have succeeded in performing self-aligned surface-silicide passivation on the Cu interconnects. The surface-silicide passivated giant-grain Cu interconnect exhibits one order of magnitude longer lifetime against electromigration than the non-passivated giant-grain Cu interconnect.