Christopher John Knors

Chemical Vapor Deposition of Copper from an Organometallic Source

High purity copper has been deposited from trialkyl phosphine complexes of cyclopentadienyl and methylcyclopentadienyl copper(I) by thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Films as thick as 4.4 μ m have been deposited at growth rates of up to 2000 A/min with resistivites typically 2.0 μ Ω cm, just slightly higher than bulk copper. Depositions were carried out at substrate temperatures between 150 and 220 °C on a variety of substrates including Si, SiO 2 , polyimide, and Cr/Cu. At low substrate temperatures, copper film growth appears to show some selectivity for transition metal surfaces. An activation energy of 18 kcal/mole has been measured for film growth on Cu seeded substrates. CVD copper films have been characterized by Auger spectroscopy which showed that carbon and oxygen levels are below the limits of detection. Transmission electron microscopy revealed that the copper grain size was ∼0.6 μ m and the grain boundaries are free of precipitates. Films show good conformality.