Patent ID: 8679970

Claim:
A method of forming a semiconductor structure comprising: providing at least one semiconductor structure located on a surface of a semiconductor substrate, said at least one semiconductor structure including at least an upper surface that is comprised of a conductive material; forming a dielectric material on said surface of said semiconductor substrate, said dielectric material including a contact opening that extends to the upper surface of said conductive material, and said contact opening having an aspect ratio of greater than 3:1; forming a diffusion barrier at least within said contact opening, said diffusion barrier lining sidewalls of said contact opening and covering said upper surface of said conductive material of said at least one semiconductor structure and said diffusion barrier is selected from the group consisting of Ta, TaN, Ti, TiN, Ru, RuN, RuTa, RuTaN, W and WN; forming a hydrogen-densified noble metal-containing material on said diffusion barrier at least within said contact opening, wherein said hydrogen-densified noble metal-containing material has a resistivity below 60 micron-ohm cm for a thickness between 10 Å and 100 Å, wherein the hydrogen-densified noble metal-containing material is formed by first depositing a noble metal-containing material and then subjecting the deposited noble metal-containing material to densification utilizing a plasma process including a H 2 -containing plasma; forming a continuous plating seed layer on said hydrogen-densified noble metal-containing material at least within said contact opening; providing a conductive metal-containing layer atop said continuous plating seed layer at least within said contact opening; and planarizing to provide a structure in which the diffusion barrier, said hydrogen-densified noble-metal-containing material, said continuous plating seed layer and said conductive metal-containing layer each have an upper surface that is coplanar with an upper surface of the dielectric material, wherein no key-hole seams are present in the conductive metal-containing material.