Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-v2bm5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-10T08:05:04.091Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - Scaling Effects on Microstructure of Cu and Co Nanointerconnects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2022

Paul S. Ho ,
Chao-Kun Hu ,
Martin Gall  and
Valeriy Sukharev
Paul S. Ho
Affiliation:
University of Texas, Austin
Chao-Kun Hu
Affiliation:
IBM T J Watson Research Center, New York
Martin Gall
Affiliation:
GlobalFoundries
Valeriy Sukharev
Affiliation:
Siemens Business
Get access

Summary

In Chapter 5, we show that the microstructure and interfaces are important in controlling EM reliability of Cu damascene interconnects where the EM lifetime can be significantly improved with metal capping or alloying. In this chapter, we investigate the scaling effect on microstructure and the implication on EM reliability for Cu and Co damascene lines. The scaling effect on Cu microstructure was investigated using a high-resolution electron microdiffraction technique down to 22 nm linewidth for the 14 nm node. The results showed a systematic trend of microstructure evolution in Cu damascene lines with continued scaling. A Monte Carlo simulation was carried out to investigate grain growth in Cu interconnects beyond 22 nm linewidth based on total energy minimization. The simulation results enabled us to understand how the interface energy counteracts the strain and grain boundary energies to control the microstructure evolution in Cu lines with continued scaling. Then the scaling effect on microstructure evolution of Co damascene lines was investigated beyond the 10nm node using both electron microdiffraction and simulation. The simulated microstructures of Cu and Co interconnects are used to project the scaling effect on EM reliability beyond the 10 nm node.

Keywords

microstructure evolutionscaling effectsMonte Carlo simulationmicrostructure evolution in nanolinescopper and cobalt interconnects
Type
Chapter
Information
Electromigration in Metals
Fundamentals to Nano-Interconnects
 , pp. 203 - 250
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Hu, C. K., Gignac, L., and Rosenberg, R., Electromigration of Cu/low dielectric constant interconnects, Microelectronics Reliability 46 (2006), 213–231.Google Scholar
Cao, L., Ganesh, K. J., Zhang, Lijuan et al., Grain structure analysis and effect on electromigration reliability in nanoscale Cu interconnects, Applied Physics Letters 102, (2013), 131907. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4799484.Google Scholar
Rauch, E. F, Veron, M., Portillo, J., Bultreys, D., Maniette, Y., and Nicolopoulos, S., Automatic crystal orientation and phase mapping in TEM by precession diffraction, Microscopy and Analysis–UK 128 (2008), S5–S5.Google Scholar
Vincent, R. and Midgley, P., Double conical beam-rocking system for measurement of integrated electron diffraction intensities, Ultramicroscopy 53 (1994), 271–282.Google Scholar
Own, C. S., Marks, L. D., and Sinkler, W., Electron precession: a guide for implementation, Review of Scientific Instrument 76 (2005), 033703.Google Scholar
Own, C. S., System design and verification of the precession electron diffraction technique, unpublished PhD dissertation, Northwestern University, 2005.Google Scholar
Rauch, E. F. and Veron, M., Coupled microstructural observations and local texture measurements with an automated crystallographic orientation mapping tool attached to a TEM, Material Science and Engineering Technology 36 (2005), 552–556.Google Scholar
Darbal, A. D., Ganesh, K. J., Liu, X., et al., Grain boundary character distribution of nanocrystalline Cu thin films using stereological analysis of transmission electron microscope orientation maps, Microscopy and Microanalysis 19 (2013), 111–119.Google Scholar
Viladot, D., Veron, M., Gemmi, M., et al., Orientation and phase mapping in the transmission electron microscope using precession-assisted diffraction spot recognition: state-of-the-art results, Journal of Microscopy 252 (2013), 23–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hu, S. T., Scaling effects on microstructure and resistivity for Cu and Co nano-interconnects, unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Texas at Austin, 2019.Google Scholar
Randle, V. and Engler, O., Introduction to Texture Analysis: Macrotexture, Microtexture and Orientation Mapping (Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2000).Google Scholar
Thompson, C. V., Grain growth in thin films, Annual Review of Materials Science 20 (1990), 245–268.Google Scholar
Thompson, C. V. and Carel, R., Texture development in polycrystalline thin films, Material Science and Engineering B 32 ( 1995), 211–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, C. V., Structure evolution during processing of polycrystalline films, Annual Review of Materials Science 30 (2000), 159–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harper, J. M. E., Cabral, C. Jr., Andricacos, P. C., et al., Mechanisms for microstructure evolution in electroplated copper thin films near room temperature, Journal of Applied Physics 86 (1999), 1.371086.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, R., Edelstein, D. C., Hu, C.-K., and Rodbell, K. P., Copper metallization for high performance silicon technology, Annual Review of Materials Science 30 (2000), 229–262.Google Scholar
Lee, H. J., Han, H. N., and Lee, D. N., Annealing textures of copper damascene interconnects for ultra large scale integration, Journal of Electronic Materials 34 (2005) 1493–1499. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664–005-0156-8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Besser, P. R., Zschech, E., Blum, W. et al., Microstructural characterization of inlaid copper interconnect lines, Journal of Electronic Materials. 30 (2001), 320-330.Google Scholar
Cho, J. Y., Lee, H. J., Kim, H., and Szpunar, J. A., Textural and microstructural transformation of Cu damascene interconnects after annealing, Journal of Electronic Materials 34 (2005), 506–514.Google Scholar
Ganesh, K. J., Darbal, A. D., Rajasekhara, S., et al., Effect of downscaling nano-copper interconnects on the microstructure revealed by high resolution TEM-orientation-mapping, Nanotechnology 23 (2012), 135702.Google Scholar
Ganesh, K. J., Effect of downscaling copper interconnects on the microstructure revealed by high resolution TEM orientation mapping, unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Texas at Austin, 2011.Google Scholar
Kim, T. H., Zhang, X. G., Nicholson, D. M., et al., Large discrete resistance jump at grain boundary in copper nanowire, Nano Letters 10 (2010), 3096–3100.Google Scholar
Andricacos, P. C., Uzoh, C., Dukovic, J., Horkans, J., and Deligianni, H., Damascene copper electroplating for chip interconnections, IBM Journal of Research and Development 42 (1998), 567–574.Google Scholar
Lingk, C., and Gross, M. E., Recrystallization kinetics of electroplated Cu in damascene trenches at room temperature, Journal of Applied Physics 84 (1998), 5547–5553.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brandstetter, S., Rauch, E. F., Carreau, V., et al., Pattern size dependence of grain growth in Cu interconnects, Script Materialia 63 (2010), 965–968.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carreaua, V., Maitrejeana, S., Verdierb, M., et al., Evolution of Cu microstructure and resistivity during thermal treatment of damascene line: Influence of line width and temperature, Microelectronic Engineering 84 (2007), 2723–2728.Google Scholar
Hu, S., Cao, L., Spinella, L., and Ho, P. S., Microstructure evolution and effect on resistivity for Cu nanointerconnects and beyond, 2018 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), San Francisco, CA (2018), 5.4.1–5.4.3, doi: 10.1109/IEDM.2018.8614547.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cao, L., Effects of scaling on microstructure evolution of Cu nanolines and impact on electromigration reliability, unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Texas at Austin, 2015.Google Scholar
McLean, M., Determination of the surface energy of copper as a function of crystallographic orientation and temperature, Acta Metallurgica 19 (1971), 387–393.Google Scholar
Basavalingappa, A., Shen, M. Y., and Lloyd, J. R., Modeling the copper microstructure and elastic anisotropy and studying its impact on reliability in nanoscale interconnects, Mechanics of Advanced Materials and Modern Processes 3 (2017) 10.1186/s40759–017-0021-5.Google Scholar
Schwartz, G. C. and Srikrishnan, K. V., Handbook of Semiconductor Interconnection Technology, 2nd ed. (London: Taylor & Francis Group, 2006), 388–461.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cao, L., Zhang, L., Ho, P. S., Justison, P., and Hauschildt, M., Scaling effects on microstructure and electromigration reliability for Cu and Cu(Mn) interconnects, 2014 IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium, Waikoloa, HI (2014), 5A.5.1–5A.5.5.Google Scholar
Hauschildt, M., Effects of barrier layer, annealing and seed layer thickness on microstructure and thermal stress in electroplated Cu films, unpublished M.S. thesis, University of Texas at Austin, 1999.Google Scholar
Volinsky, A., Hauschildt, M., Vella, J. B., et al., Residual stress and microstructure of electroplated Cu films on different barrier layers, Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings 695 (2001), https://doi.org/10.1557/PROC-695-L1.11.1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lu, K., Lu, L., and Suresh, S., Strengthening materials by engineering coherent internal boundaries at the nanoscale, Science 324, (2009), 349–352.Google Scholar
Chen, K. C., Wu, W. W., Liao, C. N., et al., Observation of atomic diffusion at twin-modified grain boundaries in copper, Science 321 (2008), 1160777.Google Scholar
Ranganathan, S., On the geometry of coincidence site lattices. Acta Crystallographica 21 (1966), 197–199.Google Scholar
Randle, V., The Role of Coincident Site Lattice in Grain Boundary Engineering (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).Google Scholar
Murr, L. E., Interfacial Phenomena in Metals and Alloys (Reading: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1975).Google Scholar
Randle, V. and Randle, V., The Measurement of Grain Boundary Geometry (Philadelphia: Institute of Physics Pub., 1993.Google Scholar
Petch, N. J., The cleavage strength of polycrystals, Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute 174 (1953), 25–28.Google Scholar
Mont, F. W., Zhang, X., Wang, W., et al., Cobalt interconnect on copper barrier process integration at the 7nm node, 2017 IEEE International Interconnect Technology Conference (IITC), Hsinchu (2017), 1–3.Google Scholar
Bekiaris, N., Wu, Z., Ren, H., et al., Cobalt fill for advanced interconnects, 2017 IEEE International Interconnect Technology Conference (IITC), Hsinchu (2017), 4–6.Google Scholar
Hu, C.-K, Kelly, J., Huang, H., et al., Future on-chip interconnect metallization and electromigration, 2018 IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium (IRPS), Burlingame (2018), 4F.1-1–4F.1-6.Google Scholar
Hu, S. and Ho, P. S., Scaling effects on microstructure and implication on resistivity of Co nanointerconnects, 2020 IEEE International Interconnect Technology Conference (IITC), San Jose (2020).Google Scholar
Jung, J. K., Hwang, N. M., and Joo, Y. C., Microstructure evolution in damascene interconnects, Journal of the Korean Physical Society 40 (2002), 90–93.Google Scholar
Srolovitz, D. J., Anderson, M. P., Sahni, P. S., and Grest, G. S., Computer simulation of grain growth, Acta Metallurgica 32 (1984), 783–802.Google Scholar
Anderson, M. P. and Grest, G. S., Computer simulation of normal grain growth in three dimensions, Philosophical Magazine B 59 (1988), 293–329.Google Scholar
Li, Z., Wang, J., and Huang, H., Grain boundary curvature based 2D cellular automata simulation of grain coarsening, Journal of Alloys and Compounds 791 (2019), 411–422.Google Scholar
Raabe, D., Introduction of a scalable 3D cellular automation with a probabilistic switching rule for the discrete mesoscale simulation of recrystallization phenomena, Philosophical Magazine A 79 (1999), 2339–2358.Google Scholar
Gao, J., Wei, M., Zhang, L., Du, Y., Liu, Z., and Huang, B., Effect of different initial structures on the simulation of microstructure evolution during normal grain growth via phase-field modeling, Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A 49 (2018), 6442–6456.Google Scholar
Krill, C. E. and Chen, L. Q., Computer simulation of 3-D grain growth using a phase-field model, Acta Materialia 50 (2002), 3057–3073.Google Scholar
Kawasaki, K., Nagai, T., and Nakashima, K., Vertex models for two-dimensional grain growth, Philosophical Magazine B 60 (1989), 399–421.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weygand, D., Bréchet, Y., Lépinoux, J., and Gust, W., Three-dimensional grain growth: a vertex dynamics simulation, Philosophical Magazine B 79 (1999), 703–716.Google Scholar
Frost, H. J., Thompson, C. V., Howe, C. L, and Whang, J., A two-dimensional computer simulation of capillarity-driven grain growth: preliminary results, Scripta Metallurgica 22 (1988), 65–70.Google Scholar
Sun, B., Suo, Z., and Yang, W., A finite element method for simulating interface motion, Acta Materialia 45 (1977), 1907–1915.Google Scholar
Grest, G. S., Srolovitz, D. J., and Anderson, M. P., Computer simulation of grain growth – IV. Anisotropic grain boundary energies, Acta Metallurgica 33 (1985), 509–520.Google Scholar
Srolovitz, D. J., Grest, G. S., and Anderson, M. P., Computer simulation of grain growth – V. Abnormal grain growth, Acta Metallurgica 33 (1985), 2233–2247.Google Scholar
Porter, D. A., Easterling, K. E., and Sherif, M. Y., Phase Transformations in Metals and Alloys, 3rd ed. (Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2009).Google Scholar
Bulatov, V. V., Reed, B. W., and Kumar, M., Grain boundary energy function for fcc metals, Acta Materialia 65 (2014), 161–175.Google Scholar
Murakami, M. and Chaudhari, P., Thermal strain in lead thin films I: dependence of the strain on crystal orientation, Thin Solid Films 46 (1977), 109–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anandatheertha, S., Monte Carlo simulation of three dimensional grain growth code version No.1 (basic), MathWorks File Exchange, MathWorks (2012), http://mathworks.matlabcentral/fileexchange.Google Scholar
Mason, J. K., Grain boundary energy and curvature in Monte Carlo and cellular automata simulations of grain boundary motion, Acta Materialia 94 (2015), 162–171.Google Scholar
Rodriguez, A. M., Bozzolo, G., and Ferrante, J., Multilayer relaxation and surface energies of fcc and bcc metals using equivalent crystal theory, Surface Science 289 (1993), 100–126.Google Scholar
Wang, S. G., Tian, E. K., and Lung, C. W., Surface energy of arbitrary crystal plane of bcc and fcc metals, Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids 61 (2000), 1295–1300.Google Scholar
Tromans, D., Elastic anisotropy of HCP metal crystals and polycrystals, International Journal of Research and Reviews in Applied Sciences 6 (2011), 462–483.Google Scholar
Lu, Y. and Qin, R., Influences of the third and fourth nearest neighbour interactions on the surface anisotropy of face-centered-cubic metals, Surface Science 624 (2014), 103–111.Google Scholar
Wong, S., Ryu, C., Lee, H., and Kwon, K., Barriers for copper interconnections, Materials Research Society Proceedings 514 (1998), 75–81.Google Scholar
Wu, M. S., Nazarov, A. A., and Zhou, K. Misorientation dependence of the energy of symmetrical tilt boundaries in hcp metals: prediction by the disclination-structural unit model, Philosophical Magazine 84, 8 (2004), 785–806.Google Scholar
Zhang, J. M., Wang, D. D, and Xu, K. W, Calculation of the surface energy of hcp metals by using the modified embedded atom method, Applied Surface Science 253 (2006), 2018–2024.Google Scholar
Fu, Q., Liu, W., and Li, Z. L, Calculation of the surface energy of hcp-metals with the empirical electron theory, Applied Surface Science 255 (2009), 9348–9357.Google Scholar
Luo, Y. and Qin, R., Surface energy and its anisotropy of hexagonal close-packed metals, Surface Science 630 (2014), 195–201.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×