Patent ID: 7285308

Claim:
A method for depositing a ruthenium thin film onto a substrate, said method comprising: (a) depositing a nucleation layer comprising ruthenium metal onto the substrate by chemical vapor deposition, wherein the nucleation layer is deposited using a first ruthenium precursor/co-reactant gas mixture having greater than about 30 mole percent of the co-reactant gas, under nucleation layer CVD conditions including a temperature of from about 250° C. to about 340° C. and a ruthenium precursor gas flow rate that is sufficient to maintain a surface reaction rate-limited deposition; and (b) depositing an upper layer comprising ruthenium metal onto the nucleation layer by chemical vapor deposition, wherein the upper layer is deposited using a second ruthenium precursor/co-reactant gas mixture having less than 50 mole percent of the co-reactant gas under upper layer CVD conditions, including a ruthenium precursor gas flow rate that is less than that needed to maintain a surface reaction rate-limited deposition.