Materials aspects of copper interconnection technology for semiconductor applications

Abstract

Metallisations, which form key components on semiconductor devices and circuits, have gone through many changes since the first discoveries of these devices. Metallisation applications include contacts to semiconductor surfaces, gate on metal oxide semiconductor devices, and interconnections, each defining its own criteria for the application of a given metal or metallisation scheme. This paper focusses only on the interconnection application. A brief examination of the desired properties of an interconnection metal, especially Cu, and a discussion of the materials aspect of this application has been carried out, including whether copper satisfies the needs of today and will satisfy them in the future.