Characterization of Cu Films Deposited with Concurrent Electron Bombardment

During the past few years my students and I have developed a unique thin metal film deposition system that has capabilities that are not available with commercial systems. For the past year we have been involved with experiments to determine if this system can be used to combine and simplify a few steps that are required in the fabrication of integrated circuits. Our specific objective for this project is to investigate if electron bombardment during the sputter deposition of thin copper films into high-aspect ratio integrated circuit interconnect trenches can change the crystal structure of the deposited films. The process that we use to deposit the films called "sputtering" will be described below. Integrated circuits are part of virtually every electronic device currently made. To make integrated circuits smaller and more powerful requires that new materials be used in their fabrication. One of the new materials being used is copper. The performance of copper in its specific application in integrated circuits depends on the crystal structure of the deposited thin films. Our deposition system has capabilities with respect to electron bombardment concurrent with film deposition that are no available with current commercial systems. We will use UWEC's scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscope to analyze the samples. The students involved in these experiments are currently being trained in the use of these instruments by Dr. Pierson.

To read the full detailed description of Dr. Pierson's research you may download it here in MS Word format. (156 Kb)