Effect of plasma pre-treatment on dewetting properties of CVD Cu on CVD W2N barrier layer

The effect of different plasma Pre-treatments of chemical vapor deposited (CVD) tungsten nitride (W2N) surfaces on the dewetting behavior of subsequently grown CVD Cu films was investigated by annealing the resulting film stacks in high purity argon. It was found that a hydrogen plasma pre-treatment significantly improved the resistance to Cu dewetting from the W2N surfaces while ammonia and nitrogen plasma pretreatment slightly accelerated the dewetting process. The proposed mechanisms and ramifications of these findings were discussed.