Method of fabricating a Ti/TiN/Al contact, with a reactive sputtering step

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method of fabricating a semiconductor device, which comprises a formation of contact holes in an interlayer insulating film formed on a silicon substrate, formation of a titanium film and a titanium nitride film, as a barrier metal, and lamp annealing. The formation of the titanium nitride film is featured by reactive sputtering using a titanium target whose orientation ratio of (001) plane is not more than 70 %. The titanium nitride film thus formed does not shrink rapidly during heat treatment and thus degradation of barrier performance thereof is prevented.

Description: The present invention relates to a method of fabricating a semiconductor device and, particularly, to a method of forming an electrode wiring on a silicon substrate through a barrier metal. Heretofore, aluminum (Al) or an alloy thereof has been mainly used as material for forming electrode wirings which are in ohmic contact with respective impurity diffusion regions formed in a silicon (Si) substrate and further with the silicon substrate itself. As well known in the art, if such a metal for electrode wiring is directly formed on the silicon substrate, alloy spike and/or silicon nodule may be produced by reaction between aluminum and silicon due to thermal hysteresis of the metal deposition step and subsequent steps. In a case of a single layer wiring of aluminum or its alloy, breakage of wiring due to electromigration and/or stressmigration becomes severe problem. In order to prevent aluminum and silicon in contact regions from reacting with each other, it is usual to form a barrier metal layer between the silicon substrate and the metal layer forming the electrode wiring. A multi-layer wiring using such barrier metal layer is effective in preventing such wiring breakage due to electromigration or stressmigration. The barrier metal layer is generally formed only on the contact regions of the impurity diffusion regions to the electrodes. In order to improve the durability against stressmigration, however, it is popular recently that the barrier metal layer is formed not only on the contact regions but also on a wiring formation regions beneath the electrode wirings. The latter scheme is becoming popular. As the barrier metal to be formed beneath the electrode wiring, a titanium (Ti) film or a titanium nitride (TiN) film is mainly used. More specifically, an interlayer insulating film of such as silicon dioxide is formed on a silicon substrate in which desired diffusion regions are formed through desired impurity diffusion steps. After a contact hole is formed in the interlayer insulating film, a titanium (Ti) film and a titanium nitride (TiN) film are formed sequentially on the surface of the silicon substrate as a barrier metal, followed by carrying out heat treatment. An aluminum (Al) film is thereafter formed on the barrier metal layer, and these three metal layers are then patterned to form a three-layer electrode wiring. A method of this type is known from JP-A-63 111 666. The titanium nitride film as the barrier metal is usually formed by reactive sputtering with using titanium as a target electrode in a mixture gas of argon (Ar) and nitrogen gas (N₂) as sputtering atmosphere. The subsequent heat treatment is performed by lamp annealing within nitrogen gas or NH₃ gas. By this heat treatment, the titanium film within the contact hole is silicided from the side of the silicon substrate while non-reacted titanium of the titanium nitride film and the titanium file are nitrided from the side of the sputtering gas. Therefore, the performance of the titanium film and the titanium nitride film as the barrier metal is improved and the contact resistance is reduced. However, in the fabrication method of semiconductor device, mentioned above, when the titanium nitride film is lamp-annealed to improve the properties thereof, it is crystallized by rapid heating and shrinked, resulting in fine cracks in the titanium nitride film. Therefore, the barrier performance of the titanium nitride film is degraded and leakage current is increased, resulting in degradation of reliability of the semiconductor device. An object of the present invention is to provide a method of fabricating semiconductor device, by which formation of fine cracks in a titanium nitride film during lamb-annealing is restricted and the reliability of resultant semiconductor device is improved. In a method for fabricating a semiconductor device through formation of contact holes in an interlayer insulating film formed on a silicon substrate, formations of a titanium film and a titanium nitride film on a whose surface of the substrate and heat-treatment thereof by means of lamp annealing, the present invention resides in that the titanium nitride film is formed by reactive sputtering with using a titanium target whose area ratio of (001) plane orientation among orientations existing on the sputtering surface thereof, that is, its orientation ratio, is not more than 70 %. It is known from JP-A-62 284 069 that the rate of film formation from a target made of soft ferrite can be considerably increased by providing ≧ 60% of the surface area of the target with (100) crystal orientation. The present inventors have found that, with the titanium target whose orientation ratio of (001) plane is not more than 70 %, the deposition rate of the titanium nitride film is reduced and residual oxygen in the sputtering atmosphere is taken into the titanium nitride film thus formed. The titanium nitride film containing such large amount of oxygen does not rapidly shrink by lamp annealing. Since, therefore, the formation of fine cracks in the titanium nitride film is restricted, the degradation of barrier performance is avoided. The present invention is based on this discovery. The above-mentioned and other objects, features and advantages of this invention will become more apparent by reference to the following detailed description of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein: Fig. 1 is a cross section of a semiconductor chip for explaining a first embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a bulk material for explaining a cutting method of a titanium target plate to be used in the first embodiment; Fig. 3 shows a construction of the titanium target to be used in the first embodiment; and Fig. 4 shows a relation between the orientation ratio of (001) plane of the titanium target and a ratio of junction leakage current defect. The present invention will be described with reference to an embodiment thereof in conjunction with the drawings. Referring to Fig. 1 which is a cross section of a semiconductor chip according to a first embodiment of the present invention, an interlayer insulating film 2 of such as silicon dioxide (SiO₂) or PSG is formed on a silicon substrate 1 and then a contact hole 7 is formed by patterning the interlayer insulating film 2 thus formed. Then, an impurity diffusion layer 3 is formed in a portion of the silicon substrate 1 corresponding to the contact hole 7 by introducing an impurity thereto. Thereafter, a titanium film 4 having thickness of 20 to 80 nm is deposited thereon by sputtering. The above-mentioned steps are the same as those used in the conventional fabrication method. Thereafter, a titanium nitride film 5 having thickness of 80 to 150 nm is deposited thereon by means of reactive sputtering using titanium as target. The titanium target to be used in this sputtering is preliminarily regulated such that its orientation ratio of (001) plane is about 50 %. The sputtering conditions are a mixture gas of argon (Ar) and nitrogen gas as sputtering atmosphere, total gas pressure of 0.528 Pa (4 mTorr), power of 3 kW and substrate temperature of 200°C. Thereafter, a heat treatment is performed by a lamp annealing in nitriding atmosphere such as nitrogen gas or NH₃ gas at 500 to 900°C for 30 seconds. Then, an aluminum film 6 is formed thereon and an electrode wiring having three-layer structure is formed by patterning the aluminum film 6, the titanium nitride film 5 and the titanium film 4, all together. A method of fabricating the titanium target will be described with reference to Figs. 2 and 3. Referring to Fig. 2, the orientation ratio of (001) plane in a surface of a bulk titanium material 8 for ordinary titanium target was measured by such as X ray diffraction. Then, for example, titanium target plates 9A each having minimum orientation ratio were cut out in parallel to an X-Y plane and titanium target plates 9B each having maximum orientation ratio were cut out in parallel to a Y-Z plane. Then, as shown in Fig. 3, these plates 9A and 9B were cut to triangle shapes and arranged regularly to obtain a polygonal titanium target plate 10 whose combined orientation ratio of (001) plane is about 50 %. Similarly, several titanium target plates whose orientation ratio of (001) plane is ranged from 20 % to 90 % were prepared, and semiconductor devices were fabricated by forming the titanium nitride films from these titanium targets. For these semiconductor devices, relation between orientation ratio of (001) plane and junction leakage current defect was observed, the result being shown in Fig. 4. As is clear from Fig. 4, with the titanium target having orientation ratio of (001) plane more than 70 %, the junction leakage defect increases due to fine cracks formed in the titanium nitride film 4. Therefore, it is necessary that the orientation ratio of (001) plane of the titanium target is not more than 70 %. A surface of a titanium target in nitriding atmosphere is converted by reaction with nitrogen in plasma into titanium nitride and the latter is sputtered. In this case, when the orientation ratio of (001) plane of the titanium target surface is high, an amount of titanium nitride sputtered from the surface is increased and deposition rate of titanium nitride film on the silicon substrate is increased. On the contrary, with smaller orientation ratio of the titanium target surface, the deposition rate of titanium nitride film is reduced and more residual oxygen in the atmosphere is taken in the titanium nitride film. In such titanium nitride film containing such amount of oxygen, formation of fine cracks is restricted due to the fact that rapid shrinkage of the film is relaxed even if it is subjected to a rapid heat treatment by means of lamb annealing. It is believed that, for this reason, the degradation of barrier performance is reduced and junction leakage defect is also reduced. Although, in the first embodiment, the titanium target plates are cut out from the bulk material after the orientation ratio of (001) plane thereof is measured, it is possible to produce a titanium target having orientation ratio of (001) plane of not more than 70 %, by cutting target plates from a titanium bulk material in parallel to three or more directions and regularly arranging them. The shape of the titanium target is not limited to octagonal as shown in Fig. 3 and any other polygonal shape or even circular shape may be possible. A second embodiment of the present invention will be described. Although the step of forming a titanium nitride film by using a titanium target whose orientation ratio of (001) plane is not more than 70 % is the same as in the first embodiment, the orientation ratio in the second embodiment is regulated to not more than 70 % by means of annealing. The titanium target is prepared by cutting and shaping a bulk titanium material. In order to improve a degradation of workability due to work hardening, the titanium bulk material is annealed at 600 to 1600°C. By this annealing, titanium in the bulk material recrystallized and grain growth speed is higher with higher temperature and longer treating time, resulting in higher orientation ratio of (001) plane of the titanium target surface. Therefore, when a surface of the annealed bulk material is used as a surface of the titanium target, the orientation ratio of (001) plane of the target may become larger than 70 %, causing junction leakage defect to be increased. In order to make the orientation ratio of (001) plane smaller than 70 % without degradation of workability due to work hardening, the titanium target in the second embodiment was prepared by annealing the bulk material at 1000 to 1600°C for 5 to 30 minutes. For example, the orientation ratio of (001) plane of the titanium bulk material annealed at 1100°C for 10 minutes was 30 to 40 %. When a semiconductor device was produced by forming a titanium nitride film with using a titanium target whose orientation rate of (001) plane is made not more than 70 % by this annealing, the junction leak defect was as small as in the first embodiment, improving the reliability of the semiconductor device. Although the present invention has been described with reference to a specific embodiment (or specific embodiments), this description is not meant to be construed in a limiting sense. Various modifications of the disclosed embodiments, as well as other embodiments of the invention, will becomes apparent to persons skilled in the art upon reference to the description of the invention. It is therefore contemplated that the appended claims will cover any modifications or embodiments as fall within the true scope of the invention.

Claims: A method of fabricating a semiconductor device comprising the steps of: forming at least one contact hole in an insulating film formed on a silicon substrate to expose a part of said silicon substrate; depositing a titanium film and a titanium nitride film on said insulating film and said part of said silicon substrate; annealing said silicon substrate and said films formed thereon ; and depositing an aluminum film on said titanium nitride film to form an electrode wiring layer having three-layer structure of said aluminum film, said titanium nitride film and said titanium film; wherein said titanium nitride film is formed by reactive sputtering using a titanium target having an orientation ratio in the (001) plane of not more than 70 %. The method claimed in claim 1, wherein said titanium target is constructed with at least one titanium plate having a high orientation ratio in the (001) plane and at least one titanium plate having a low orientation ratio in the (001) plane. The method claimed in claim 2, wherein each said titanium plate is triangle in shape. The method claimed in claim 1, wherein said titanium target is constituted with a plurality of said titanium plates having a high orientation ratio and a plurality of said titanium plates having a low orientation ratio and wherein said titanium target is polygonal in shape. The method claimed in claim 1, wherein said titanium target is annealed.

Inventors: ITO NOBUKAZU C O NEC CORPORATI, ITO, NOBUKAZU, C/O NEC CORPORATION
Applicants: NIPPON ELECTRIC CO, NEC CORPORATION
Application year: 1991
Main classification: C23C14
IPC codes: C23C14, H01L23, H01L21