MEASUREMENTS OF THE DEBOND ENERGY FOR THIN METALLIZATION LINES ON DIELECTRICS

A new method for measuring the interface fracture energy Gamma(i) for thin metal films on dielectrics has been used to study the interface b etween vapor deposited Cu films and various dielectric substrates (SiO 2, SiNx and polyimide). For fixed Cu film thickness, the ordering of G amma(i) from lowest to highest has been established as: Cu/SiNx --> Cu /SiO2 --> Cu/polyimide. For a given interface, the effects on Gamma(i) of Cu layer thickness have been found to be small for thin films in t he range 50-500 nm. Gamma(i) increases slightly with layer thickness. There are also small effects on Gamma(i) of mode mixity angle, psi : G amma(i) increases as psi increases from similar to 0 to similar to 50 degrees.