NOVEL PROCESSING TECHNIQUES FOR ACHIEVING PRODUCTION-WORTHY, LOW DIELECTRIC, LOW INTERCONNECT RESISTANCE AND HIGH PERFORMANCE IC

Abstract: The interconnects (18) in a semiconductor device contacting metal lines (14) comprise a low resistance metal, such as copper, gold, silver, or platinum, and are separated by a material having a low dielectric constant (20), such as benzocyclobutene or a derivative thereof. A tri-layer resist structure (16) is used, together with a lift-off process, to form the interconnects (18). The low dielectric constant material (20) provides a diffusion barrier to the diffusion of the low resistance metal (18). The tri-layer resist (16) comprises a first layer (16a) of a dissolvable polymer, a second layer (16b) of a hard mask material, and a third layer (16c) of a resist material. The resulting structure provides an integrated circuit with increased speed and ease of fabrication.

Description: NOVEL PROCESSING TECHNIQUES FOR ACHIEVING PRODUCTION-WORTHY, LOW DIELECTRIC, LOW INTERCONNECT RESISTANCE AND HIGH PERFORMANCE IC TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates generally to semiconductor devices in integrated circuit (ICs), and. more particu- larly, to semiconductor devices having a reduced RC (resistance times capacitance) time constant and hence faster speed. BACKGROUND ART Concepts of low dielectric constants integrated with low interconnect resistance metal structures have been pro- posed by many technologists. Those ideas include "pillar plugs", "anti-contacts vias", spin-on-low-dielectric-constant in¬ sulators (either organic and/-or inorganic), spin-on layered low dielectric constant materials and technology, damascene of metal interconnects and dual damascene of metal interconnects. By "damascene" is meant a process in which trenches or contact/via openings are formed and then filled with metal using CVD (chemical vapor deposition) or PVD (physical vapor deposition) or other techniques, followed by a polish to remove any overfilled areas. The term is based on a process developed by goldsmiths in ancient Damascus, comprising crafting a pattern or design on a hard surface and then ham¬ mering fine gold wires onto the designed pattern. Many ideas have been proposed for combinations of low dielectric constant and low interconnect resistance metal structures, but none have been introduced into commercial practice at this time. The only demonstration of these new advanced concepts is work done by IBM on BPDA-PDA integration with copper interconnects. "BPDA-PDA" refers to a polyimide available from E.I. du Pont de Nemours, under the trade designation PI-2610. The BPDA-PDA is intended to replace silicon dioxide. However, since copper is a source of contamination, then special care has to be taken to prevent copper from diffusing into other parts of the IC structure and causing failures. This is done by using a Si 3 N 4 layer to sepa¬ rate the copper layer and the BPDA-PDA layer. However, SisN 4 has a dielectric constant of about 8. which increases ca¬ pacitance over that of structures employing silicon dioxide. Further, a barrier metal, comprising approximately 1000 A of refractoiy metal cladding is added, which increases the interconnect resistance. While this technology employs veiy ad- vancεd processing techniques such as dual damascene and chemical vapor deposited (CVD) copper and provides reli interconnects, nevertheless, the final result is a very minor improvement over the existing svstem The composite die tnc constant of BPDA-PDA is about 3 8 and the copper/refractoiy metal has a composite resistance of about 2 6 μΩ- as compared to the conventional SiCh dielectπc and Al interconnect (4 0 dielectπc constant and 2 8-3 2 μΩ-cm re tance, respectively) The slight improvement in overall capacitance and resistance is achieved at a high process cost, thus is not cost-justified Thus, there remains a need for providing a comparatively simple process that results m increased device spee DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION In accordance with the invention, the interconnects contacting metal lines comprise a low resistance metal are separated by a material having a low dielectπc constant As used herein, "low resistance metal" refers to a metal h ing a sheet resistance less than that of any of the aluminum alloys presently employed as interconnects For example, sheet resistance of pure aluminum s about 28 μΩ-cm, while that of Al-l%Cu is about 3 3 μΩ-cm By "low dielec constant" is meant that the dielectπc constant is less than that of S1 2. or less than about 40 In the process of the pres invention, a tn-layer resist structure is used, together with a lift-off process, to form the interconnects The semiconductor device is formed on a wafer and comprises source and dram regions contacted by source dram contacts, respectively, with each source and dram region separated by a gate region contacted by a gate electrode first level patterned interconnect contacts the source and dram contacts and the gate electrode in a desired pattern A s ond level patterned interconnect contacts the first level patterned interconnect by a plurality of metal Imes, which separated by a first dielectπc material The second level patterned interconnect compnses the low resistance metal and interconnects are separated by the low dielectnc constant mateπal. which is plananzed The low dielectnc constant ma rial is men to diffusion of the low resistance metal In the process of the invention, the second level patterned interconnect is fabncated by forming and patternin tn-layer resist on the first mterlevel dielectnc layer to expose top portions of the metal Imes The tn-layer resist compn a first layer of a dissolvable polymer, a second layer of a hard mask mateπal. and a thud layer of a resist matenal Exa ples of hard mask materials include Sι0 2 , Sι 3 N 4 , silicon oxy-nitnde, sputtered silicon, amorphous silicon (e g , by t CVD method), and amorphous carbon (e g., by the PVD or CVD methods) Next, a metal layer having a resistance greater than 2 8 μΩ-cm is blanket-deposited on the wafer Examples include Cu (1 8 μΩ-cm), Au (2 5 μΩ-cm), and (1.7 μΩ-cm) The first layer of the tn-layer resist, compnsmg the dissolvable polymer, is removed to thereby lift off me thereover Finally, a coating of benzocyclobutene or a denvauve thereof is spun on to cover the metal layer The invention disclosed here solves all the practical issues disclosed concepts All techniques used are prov production technologies A slight process enhancement is incorporated to ensure easy implementation m volume prod tion IC fabπcation area Other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon consideration of t following detailed descπpuon and accompanying drawings, m which like reference designations represent like featu throughout the FIGURES BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The drawings referred to in this description should be understood as not being drawn to scale except if spec¬ ifically noted. Moreover, the drawings are intended to illustrate only one portion of an integrated circuit fabricated in ac- cordance with the present invention. FIGS. 1-6 are cross-sectional views at various stages in the processing of wafers in accordance with the present invention, in which: FIG. 1 depicts the wafer at a stage with contact plugs and the first interlayer dielectric formed on a substrate with active devices formed thereon; FIG. 2 depicts the wafer after tri-level resist patterning; FIG. 3 depicts the wafer after proper surface overetch; FIG. 4 depicts the wafer after metal evaporation; FIG. 5 depicts the wafer after metal lift-off; and FIG. 6 depicts the wafer after dielectric spin-coat with benzocyclobutene (BCB). BEST MODES FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Reference is now made in detail to a specific embodiment of the present invention, which illustrates the best mode presently contemplated by the inventors for practicing the invention. Alternative embodiments are also briefly de- scribed as applicable. It is assumed that the incoming wafers are properly fabricated and the latest production techniques are used. It is worthwhile to note that this invention is not limited to the following outlined process, but is so chosen so that the key as¬ pects can be easily visualized. FIG. 1 depicts the incoming wafers. Active devices, i.e., transistors, are formed by conventional techniques on the substrate; the substrate and active devices formed thereon are collectively denoted 10. Source and drain contacts make contact to corresponding source and drain regions, while gate electrodes make contact to a thin gate oxide for forming a gate region between the source and drain region. The source and drain contacts and gate electrodes are separated by an oxide and are self-aligned with each other and are planarized with the oxide. Details of this aspect of the process are dis¬ closed in a series of patents issued to Jacob D. Haskell and assigned to the same assignee as the present application (U.S. Patents U.S. Patents 4,974,055; 4,977,108; 5,028,555; 5,055,427; 5,057,902; and 5,081,516). As is also described therein, a first interlevel dielectric layer 12 is formed and is then planarized by chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) techniques. Contacts are defined and conventional tungsten plugs 14 are formed by blanket deposition and CMP polish¬ ing. Now the wafers are ready for the invention disclosed herein. Metalization is deposited by modified conventional lift-off techniques, as now described below. First, a tri-layer resist 16 is coated on the planarized surface 12a. The first layer 16a is a thick layer of polyme- thyl methaαylate (PMMA) or other polymer with proper optimization to achieve planarization. The thickness is about 0.5 to 3 μm. The actual thickness depends on design choice of metal interconnect thickness and width requirements. A rule of thumb for the ratio of the PMMA thickness to interconnect thickness is about 2 1 to ensure good electncal yiel that is, no defects In other words, the metal deposited should be no more than about 50% of the PMMA thickness A thin layer 16b of S1O 7 or Si is next deposited by any of plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECV or physical vapor deposition (PVD) or sp coating techniques Other materials that may be employed for the thin lay 16b include Sι 3 N 4 , silicon oxy-nitnde, sputtered silicon, amorphous silicon (e g , by the CVD method), and amorpho carbon (e g , by the PVD or CVD methods) The thickness is about 200 to 500 A, this layer 16b serves as the hard mas for pattern transfer Then, a thin layer 16c of conventional photoresist is coated on the hard mask layer 16b, typically to thickness of about 5,000 to 15,000 A The thickness of the thin layer 16c is a function of the wavelength used m the exp sure system, e g , G-line, I-une, or DUV (deep ultraviolet) The technologist may either choose the maximum or mini mum on the swmg curve (the swmg curve is a function of thickness) Usually, technologists choose the minimum resi thickness that corresponds to either the maximum or minimum of the swmg curve Conventional lithography techniques are used to pattern the conventional photoresist layer 16c The image i transferred to the hard mask 16b by dry etch techniques, employing conventional plasma chemistry Dry etch is agai used to transfer the image from the hard mask 16b to the PMMA or polymer layer 16a Appropriate plasma chemistry i used to create a shght re-entrant angle θ As an example, the chemistry could employ conventional CF 4 plasma or simpl O2 plasma By "shght re-entrant angle" is meant an angle of greater than 90°, preferably, greater than 100° The resultin structure is shown m FIG 2 Appropnate plasma chemistry is next used to etch the wafer surface 12a to ensure the plugs or underneath meta layers 14 are exposed at the desired location The appropriate plasma chemistry could employ either CF 4 , CHF 3 . or othe fluorme chemistry with or without oxygen chemistry The procεssmg pressure would have to be optimized to give the cor rect profile, however, this is not considered to constitute undue experimentation The wafer surface etching advanta geously removes the top photoresist layer 16c, depending on the choice of chemistry, although the removal may be per formed in a separate step The use of the hard mask 16b protects the lntegnty of the PMMA duπng etching The resultin structure is shown m FIG 3 Following removal of the top photoresist layer 16c, a high temperature bake is performed to that ensure no out gassing of the PMMA layer 16a interferes with the metal deposition step, described below The high temperature bake i earned out after layer 16c is removed and pnor to the metal deposition. Specifically, the high temperature bake must b performed at a lower temperature than the glass transition temperature (T g ) of the PMMA layer 16a and yet higher tha the metal deposition temperature for good yield As an example, m the case of PMMA as the layer 16a, the wafer is bake at about 350°C Use of another polymer may require a different baking temperature, within the constraints given above A metal layer 18, specifically, a low resistance metal such as copper, gold, silver, platinum or other noble metal is deposited everywhere by resistive heat evaporation or low temperature deposition techniques Electron-beam evapora uon technique is not recommended because of radiation damage concerns PVD techniques are acceptable if the PMM or polymer 16a has a relatively high glass transition temperature, higher than the bake temperature The desired thickness of the metal layer 18 is deposited, within the range of about 2,000 to 10.000 A Desirably, a thin layer of tantalum, palladium, or titanium or other refractory metal of no more than 200 to 300 A is first deposite before depositing the bulk metal, employing the same techniques The refractory metal helps to reduce the metal-to-metal contact resistance The preferred refractory metal is palladium The resulting structure is depicted in FIG 4 The finished wafer is immersed into a tank of appropriate solvent that will react with the PMMA or polymer 16a. The PMMA or polymer 16a swells, dissolves, and lifts off the metal 18 on the surface of the hard mask 16b. leaving only those portions of the metal 18 contacting the tungsten plugs 14. The resulting structure is shown in FIG. 5. Any residual PMMA or polymer 16a is cleaned by another solvent or by appropriate plasma chemistry if deemed necessary to control defect density. Examples of suitable solvents include xylene and methyl iso-ba l ketone (MIBK). It is recommended that this process be carried out in an ultrasonic bath with agitation to enhance the lift-off of undesirable metalization. A benzocyclobutene (BCB) layer 20 or a variation of BCB is spin-coated and cured on the wafer. "BCB" refers to a class of organic materials and derivatives, all manufactured by Dow Chemical (Midland, MI). An example of a BCB derivative is divinyl siloxane bis-benzocyclobutene (DVS-BCB). The appropriate thickness of the BCB layer 20 depends on design to give the appropriate dielectric strength, and is within the range of about 4,000 to 10,000 A BCB is chosen because of its inert properties to metal diffusion. Copper and gold will not diffuse into BCB; therefore, BCB can serve as a good barrier. It is estimated that the same property will hold for other noble metals and low resistance metals. Further, BCB has a reported dielectric constant of about 2.4 to 2.7. This provides the desired dielectric constant, which is lower than that of silicon dioxide. The spin-coating process results in gap filling and planarization of the BCB layer 20. Other suitable low dielectric materials may also be employed in the practice of the present invention. These in¬ clude polyimides, polyimide siloxanes, fluoropolyimides. fluoroporymers, fully cyclized heterocyclic polymers, and polysiloxanes, which have a dielectric constant in the range of about 2.2 to 3.4. The foregoing steps are repeated as many times as necessary to build the required multi-layer metal interconnect structures. The same sequence can be used for either plugs or interconnects. The benefits of the process of the invention are: 1. Industry-standard metal lift-off techniques, modified, are used for metalization patterning. A difficult metal etching requirement is eliminated. 2. Spin-coated BCB is used to fill spaces. This achieves global and local planarization at the same time. 3. The process sequence is identical for both plugs and interconnects and provides for ease for manufacturing. 4. The process is achievable now with presently-available manufacturing techniques. 5. Noble metal structures with organic dielectric may be built without resort to polishing metal, which is very challenging at best. 6. There is no need for CVD metalization technology (if it is available, the disclosed technology is compatible as long as the temperature of the CVD metal is not too high, i.e., <350°C). 7. The process of the invention can support any metal system without expensive hardware retooling. 8. The process of the invention can support copper deposition with built-in barrier metal processing in the same process chamber. This lowers the cost of copper integration into existing technology. 9. The process of the invention can support gold deposition. Gold is believed to be the ideal metal system for low dielectric strength (ε) and low resistance (p) applications. With gold, there are no corrosion issues and no stress-induced voiding issues. Low ε and low p will enhance speed-power performance for any IC. especially microprocessors. The power consumption is proportional to operating frequency of the IC and the square of the capacitance C. R is the resis¬ tance of the line and the RC time constant will determine the switch speed of the circuit from one state to another state, i.e., a one or a zero. Further, it is expected that superior electromigration characteristics are realized with gold, as co pared to the presently-used Al alloy. INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The process of the invention multilayer interconnect structure with removed interlayer silicon dioxide replac with air or other low dielectric constant material is expected to find use in the fabrication of semiconductor devices. The foregoing description of the preferred embodiment of the present invention has been presented for purpos of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclose Obviously, many modifications and variations will be apparent to practitioners skilled in this art. It is possible that t invention may be practiced in other fabrication technologies in MOS or bipolar processes. Similarly, any process ste described might be interchangeable with other steps in order to achieve the same result. The embodiment was chosen a described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical application, thereby enabling othe skilled in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to t particular use contemplated. It is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the claims appended hereto a their equivalents.

Claims: CLAIMS What Is Claimed Is 1 A semiconductor device (10) formed on a wafer compnsmg source and dram regions contacted by source and dram contacts, respectively, and each source and dram region separated by a gate region contacted by a gate electrode, with a first level patterned mterconnect contactmg said source and dram contacts and said gate electrode m a desired pat¬ tern and with a second level patterned mterconnect (18) contactmg said first level patterned mterconnect by a plurality of metal Imes (14), said metal Imes (14) separated by a first dielectπc mateπal (12), said second level patterned mterconnect (18) compnsmg a low resistance metal and separated by a planarized dielectnc matenal (20) inert to diffusion of said low resistance metal 2 The semiconductor device of Claim 1 wherem said low resistance metal (18) has a sheet resistance of less than about 2 8 μΩ-cm 3 The semiconductor device of Claim 2 wherem said low resistance metal (18) has a thickness within the range of about 2.000 to 10,000 A 4 The semiconductor device of Claim 3 further including a thin layer of a refractory metal underneath said low resistance metal (18). said thin layer having a thickness within the range of about 200 to 300 A 5 The semiconductor device of Claim 1 wherem said planarized dielectπc mateπal (20) consists essentially of benzocvclobutene or a deπvative thereof 6 The semiconductor device of Claim 5 wherem said planarized dielectπc matenal (20) has a thickness within the range of about 4,000 to 10,000 A 7 A process for fabπcating the semiconductor device of Claim 1, compnsmg the steps of forming said second level patterned mterconnect (18) by (a) forming and patterning a tn-layer resist (16) on said first mterlevel dielectπc layer (12) to expose top portions of said metal Imes (14), said tn-layer resist (16) compnsmg a first layer (16a) of a dissolvable polymer, a sec¬ ond layer (16b) of a hard mask matenal, and a third layer (16c) of a resist mateπal, (b) blanket-depositing on said wafer said low resistance metal layer (18), (c) removing said first layer (16a) of said dissolvable polymer to thereby lift off metal (18) thereover, and (d) spinning on a coating of said dielectπc matenal to form said planarized dielectπc mateπal (20) to cover said metal layer (18) 8. The method of Claim 7 wherein said dissolvable polymer (16a) is formed to a thickness within the rang about 0.5 to 3 μm. 9. The method of Claim 7 wherein said hard mask material (16b) comprises a material selected from the gr consisting of SiO , Si 3 N 4 , siUcon oxy-nitride, sputtered siUcon, amorphous siUcon. and amorphous carbon and whe said hard mask material (16b) is formed to a thickness within the range of about 200 to 500 A. 10. The method of Claim 7 wherein said resist material (16c) is formed to a thickness within the range of 5, to 15,000 A. 11. The method of Claim 7 wherein said metal layer (18) is deposited at a first temperature, said dissolv polymer (16a) has a glass transition temperature that is greater than said first temperature, and said wafer is baked temperature that is greater than said first temperature and less than said glass transition temperature, said baking d foUowing resist pattern definition and etching of said dissolvable polymer (16a).

Inventors: CHANG MARK S, CHEUNG ROBIN W, CHANG, MARK, S., CHEUNG, ROBIN, W.
Applicants: ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES INC, ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES, INC.
Application year: 1995
Main classification: H01L23
IPC codes: H01L21, H01L23