ALD growth of Ru on RIE-pretreated TaN substrate

The polycrystalline ruthenium films were grown on TaN substrates by atomic layer deposition at temperatures ranging from 300 degC to 330 degC using bis(cyclopentadienyl) ruthenium [RuCp
₂
] and oxygen as precursors. Pretreatment of reactive ion etching (RIE) was performed to the underlying substrates before deposition in order to improve the nucleation. Various tests were carried out to characterize the as-deposited samples. The results showed that the nucleation density of Ru films with RIE pretreatment to the underlying TaN substrates was much higher than that of the ones without any pretreatment. But still the deposited Ru films were not very uniform and there was a Ta
_x
O
_y
film between Ru and TaN caused by thermal ALD process