SUBHALF MICRON METALLIZATION USING HIGH-PRESSURE AL (INVITED LECTURE)

The continuing drive towards smaller feature sizes increases the deman d on multi-level metallization. The industry is looking for higher ope rating speeds, reduced RC delay and increased reliability. Besides mee ting the technology goals the metallization process must be cost effec tive. Aluminium (Al) plug technology has clear advantages over W-Plug. These include lower resistance vias, fewer overall process steps and better electromigration performance. Conventional Al reflow processes have not gained wide acceptance at or beyond 0.35 mu m technology due to their sensitivities to surface conditions and hole profile. High-pr essure Al filling (Forcefill(R)), developed by Electrotech, is now bec oming the preferred technique for the filling of high aspect ratio str uctures.