Patent ID: 6939800

Claim:
A method for forming a dielectric copper barrier layer, the method comprising: providing a substrate having formed thereon an insulating layer having formed therein an opening configured to receive an inlaid copper structure, the insulating layer being formed of a material that includes at least one of silicon and carbon; and treating the insulating layer so that a dielectric copper barrier layer is formed on the inside surface of the opening thereby producing a barrier to copper diffusion into the insulating layer wherein said treating includes: depositing precursor materials selected from the group consisting of vinyl tri-methyl silane (C 2 CH 3 )(CH 3 ) 3 Si, di-vinyl di-methyl silane (C 2 H 3 ) 2 (CH 3 ) 2 Si, tri-vinyl methyl silane (C 2 H 3 ) 3 (CH 3 ) Si, and tetra-vinyl silane (C 2 H 3 ) 4 Si onto the insulating layer to form a precursor sub-layer on the insulating layer including on the surfaces of the inside of the opening in the insulating layer; plasma treating the precursor materials with an inert plasma; and repeating the operations of depositing the precursor materials and plasma treating the precursor materials to add additional dielectric copper barrier sub-layers onto to the underlying dielectric copper barrier sub-layers until a final dielectric copper barrier layer is formed having a desired thickness.