ONE AREA INTO WHICH A VAST AMOUNT OF RESEARCH EFFORT IS BEING
PLACED IS THAT OF USING COPPER INTERCONNECTIONS IN HIGH-SPEED
INTEGRATED CIRCUITS, REPORTS IAN POOLE
With technology moving at
such a rapid pace it is
necessary to have circuits that
can reach higher frequencies
and operate faster. In the radio
frequency scene, higher
frequencies are becoming more
common place as use of the
radio spectrum increases and
higher frequencies must be
used to accommodate the new
services. This can be seen by
the fact that the first cellular
telephone services in the UK
used frequencies around
900MHz, whereas some now
use frequencies around
1,800MHz.
However, this is only one
small example of the increased
use of the spectrum. To enable
products to be successfully
manufactured to meet the cost
and performance requirements
of the market place it is
necessary to use integrated
circuit technology. Accordingly
the operating frequencies for
ICs must increase.
Speeds in the digital side of
the industry are also increasing
rapidly to accommodate the
increased processing power
required by the more
complicated programs being
written nowadays. Processors
running at speeds of 400MHz
are relatively common now, and
it is likely that chips operating at
1GHz will be commonplace
before too long.
However, to produce chips
that run at the required
frequencies or speeds is not
easy. Feature sizes have been
progressively reduced over the
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Maxfield & Montrose Interactive Inc
years. Now sub-micron
dimensions are used in all new
chips, and these advances
alone have helped increase
speeds by reducing the
distances and the levels of
spurious capacitance.
REDUCED
RESISTANCE
The reduction in feature
sizes is not the whole story. The
resistance of the
interconnections between
different parts of the chip is now
one of the major limitations
preventing further increases in
speed.
This arises from the fact
that some degree of
capacitance, even though very
small, has to be charged up
through the resistance resulting
from the interconnections. This
gives a delay resulting from the
RC time constant and it is found
this is now longer than the
switching time of the transistors.
Accordingly, any increases in
the speed of the transistors
themselves will be hidden by
the propagation time of the
signal along the
interconnections.
Currently, aluminum is used
to make any interconnections
that are required. Although it
has a relatively high resistance,
when compared to other metals
like copper and gold, aluminum
is used because other metals
diffuse into the semiconductor
much more readily during the
thermal stages of processing.
Migration is also a problem and
EPE Online, November 1999 - www.epemag.com - 1036
metals including gold and
copper are particularly
problematical.
Against these problems the
use of copper gives a significant
improvement in speed on its
own, providing a claimed 30 per
cent improvement. It would be
possible to provide even greater
levels of increase if the
dielectric could be developed to
reduce the levels of
capacitance, but this is not an
option at the moment as
development problems are
being encountered.
ANCIENT REMEDY
To be able to use copper it
has been necessary to develop
a new process to enable it to be
used without the possibility of
diffusion or migration. This is
achieved by laying the copper
onto the silicon with an
insulating layer around it. In
many ways this new process
emulates the structure of
normal insulated wires used in
commercial and domestic
applications for
interconnections.
The process is known as
dual damascene, taking its
name from an ancient pottery
process. To achieve the
insulation, trenches are first
etched into the silicon using a
plasma etch process. A layer of
an insulator is then laid down
onto the sides and bottom of the
trench. The most common
material for this is silicon nitride,
but whatever the material it is
only a few angstroms thick,

although it is sufficiently robust
to provide insulation at the
relatively low voltages used.
The metal conductor is then
laid down onto the surface of
the whole wafer using an
electroplating process. Excess
material is then removed by
polishing the wafer back to the
silicon of the wafer. This is
achieved using a lapping
machine and a water based
slurry. In order to completely
isolate the metal
interconnection a further layer
of nitride insulator is then laid
down onto the wafer surface.
In many integrated circuits
five or more layers of
interconnections may be
required. However, it is
normally only the first two or
three layers that would use this
process. In this way only those
layers that are closest to the
transistors and require the
highest performance use the
process.
TRENCH TESTS
Tests have been carried out
to test the yield and reliability of
the basic idea. To achieve this a
silicon-oxy-fluoride (SiOF) layer
was laid onto a silicon surface
using vapor deposition and then
the trenches were formed.
The surface of the SiOF
was exposed to ammonia and
then copper was sputtered into
the trenches. To prevent the
copper diffusing into the SiOF,
nitrogen doping was used
around the edges of the trench.
The resistivity of the
resulting copper
interconnections was shown to
be significantly lower than that
of the aluminum ones normally
used. In addition to this, none of
the problems arising from the
copper lifting from the surface
were experienced once the
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Maxfield & Montrose Interactive Inc
1HZ WHFKQRORJ\ 8SGDWHV
process conditions had been intended for use in servers and
correctly set. This was one of work stations.
the major fears and had Where cost is of paramount
prevented a number of importance, copper is only
manufacturers from thinking the placed into the layers where it is
process was viable. actually required. In this way the
The overall result of the test bottlenecks that the new
was to give conclusive evidence process introduces can be kept
that a significant reduction in to a minimum. Despite this
propagation delay could be problem, it is likely to be used
achieved. By adopting this for many years to enable the
process of using copper required speeds to be achieved.
interconnects significant To this end, plans exist to
improvements in the overall use the process in new
performance of ICs have been developments beyond the year
shown to be possible. 2002. In today’s fast-moving
semiconductor manufacturing
MANUFACTURERS industry this represents a
considerable amount of
Now that it has been seen confidence in the new process.
to be viable in terms of
performance, the process needs
to be utilized in the manufacture
of real integrated circuits.
Motorola and IBM are seen as
the two world leaders in this
field and they in turn have
worked with other organizations
including universities to bring
the process to fruition. Now the
process is being licensed to a
number of other manufacturers.
There is a considerable
amount of interest because the
process has been shown to
work, and the resulting ICs have
been reliable. In addition to this,
the process does not require the
use of any further mask steps or
any new process equipment.
This will mean that
manufacturers can incorporate
the process without adding any
costs to their capital investment.
This is a considerable
advantage in a market place
that is particularly competitive
and cost sensitive.
As a result of these
advantages, the new process is
now being incorporated into the
plans of a number of
manufacturers. Motorola are
using it in high-speed chips
EPE Online, November 1999 - www.epemag.com - 1037