Barrier integrity of electroless diffusion barriers and organosilane monolayer against copper diffusion under bias temperature stress

Barrier integrity of electroless NiB and CoWP/NiB thin layers against copper (Cu) diffusion was evaluated by time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) under bias temperature stress (BTS) using metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) test structures. The BTS tests were carried out also for an approximately 2.2-nm-thick organosilane monolayer (OSML), which has been used as the underlayer of the electroless barrier layers (EBLs). It was found that the barrier integrity of the EBLs was NiB 40 nm > NiB 10nm > CoWP/NiB 40 nm = CoWP/NiB 10 nm in this order. The field acceleration parameter of the TDDB lifetime was almost the same for all EBLs. Initial failures and wide lifetime distributions were observed for CoWP/NiB when the NiB catalyst layer for CoWP was not thick enough, which is considered to be due to the large surface roughness. In addition, the OSML was found to have some barrier properties. Although the reliability of OSML was inferior to electroless NiB and CoWP/NiB barrier layers, it is considered that the barrier integrity of the EBLs was partially supported by the OSML.