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Article: ALD barriers show promise, not perfection. (Industry Watch).(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Semiconductor International
- Article date:
- August 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Reed Business Information. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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At IEEE's latest International Interconnect Technology Conference (IITC) meeting, there were many hot topics including optical interconnects, copper/low-k integration and low-k packaging issues. But the burgeoning technology of atomic layer deposition (ALD or ALCVD) stole the show for many attendees.
ALD promises monolayer thickness control of ultrathin metal barrier and seed for copper interconnects. It is expected to take over when physical or chemical vapor deposition films can no longer meet conformality requirements of high-aspect-ratio vias and trenches -possibly as soon as the 65 nm node. In addition, ALD brings to bear new material options. For instance, ...