CHEMICAL-MECHANICAL POLISHING AS AN ENABLING TECHNOLOGY FOR GIANT MAGNETORESISTANCE DEVICES

Giant magnetoresistance (GMR) devices, integrated with conventional Si interconnects (ICs), are promising candidates for future data-storage applications. Chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP), a surface smoothin g and planarization process, is anticipated to be a key technology in the demonstration of full functionality of such GMR components. In thi s work, we report on the fabrication of GMR device elements through ch emical-mechanical polishing of silicon nitride interlevel dielectrics (no). Our results show that the silicon nitride polishing process usin g commercially available slurries and pads is compatible with copper i nterconnects and copper metallized GMR elements. Contact resistivity b etween Cu and Cu as low as 5 x 10(-10) Omega-cm(2) has been achieved w ith the CMP process and related processing techniques, as obtained by de-embedding the contact resistance from GMR device measurements. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.