A novel LWR reduction approach to enhance reliability performance in ultra-thin barrier/porous low-k (K<2.4) interconnect

This study evaluated plasma treatment processes on 193i and EUV photoresist to improve the line width roughness (LWR) performance in porous low-k/ultra-thin barrier Cu interconnect. We successfully demonstrated 20% LWR reduction for 193i PR and 11% for EUV PR. Furthermore, the influence of LWR on reliability was evaluated on 45nm line-width test vehicle. A boost of 10 times Time Dependent Dielectric Breakdown (TDDB) and 2 times Eelectrical Migration (EM) was demonstrated.