Product/Service

Coppper Cleaning Technology

Source: Applied Materials, Inc.
Reactive Preclean removes speed limiting copper oxide from copper interconnect structures without contaminating the device

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Reactive Preclean removes speed limiting copper oxide from copper interconnect structures without contaminating the device and reduces the via resistance of customers' dual damascene structures by greater than 40% over the conventional sputter clean. This technology is available on the Endura Electra CU barrier/seed layer deposition system. Reactive Preclean is extendible to the very small, high aspect ratio applications needed for copper-based sub-0.18µm gigabit DRAMs and advanced microprocessor desk

Before depositing the tantalum barrier layer, Reactive Preclean removes the high-resistivity copper oxide that forms on the exposed copper from the previous deposition. All three process steps are performed on the Endura Electra Cu system under high vacuum, preventing oxide re-growth after Reactive Preclean. Reactive Preclean's hydrogen-based chemistry reduces perfluorocompound (PFC) byproducts and hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) without special venting or exhaust systems.

Applied Materials, 3050 Bowers Ave., Santa Clara, CA 95054. Tel: 408-727-5555; Fax: 408-986-8352.