Investigation of electromigration properties and plasma charging damages for plasma treatment process in Cu interconnects

This work reports the electrical performance impact of plasma treatment prior to the dielectric deposition of 0.13/spl mu/m copper dual damascene process. The experiment showed the sequence of plasma treatment process dominated electromigration (EM) immunity. On the contrast, the antenna effect experiment indicated that the superiority of electromigration immunity was paid for the degeneracy of plasma induced charging damage. An optimal solution between electromigration immunity and threshold voltage shifts induced by plasma charging damage was proposed.