Patent ID: 7588667

Claim:
A method of operating an Ionized Physical Vapor Deposition (IPVD) system to deposit a barrier layer, the method comprising: positioning a patterned substrate on a substrate table within an IPVD processing chamber, the substrate having features including a field area, a sidewall, and a bottom surface; depositing an ultra-thin barrier layer using a ruthenium (Ru) and oxygen-containing material, the ultra-thin barrier layer being less than about 4 nm thick on the sidewall, wherein a Low Net Deposition (LND) process is used to produce the ultra-thin barrier layer for providing a barrier to copper (Cu) diffusion and providing a high etch resistant “etch stop” layer for subsequent deposition/etch processes, the LND process includes depositing material onto the field area at a deposition rate of not less than 5 nm/min and not more than 50 nanometers per minute (nm/min) while depositing or etching material, or a combination thereof, on the sidewall or the bottom surface, or a combination thereof and thereby producing substantially no overhanging material at feature openings; and removing the patterned substrate from the processing chamber.