Morphological instability of Ag films caused by phase transition in the underlying Ta barrier layer

Wide-bandgap (WBG) semiconductor technologies are maturing and may provide increased device performance in many fields of applications, such as high-temperature electronics. However, there are still issues regarding the stability and reliability of WBG devices. Of particular importance is the high-temperature stability of interconnects for electronic systems based on WBG-semiconductors. For metallization without proper encapsulation, morphological degradation can occur at elevated temperatures. Sandwiching Ag films between Ta and/or TaN layers in this study is found to be electrically and morphologically stabilize the Ag metallization up to 800 °C, compared to 600 °C for uncapped films. However, the barrier layer plays a key role and TaN is found to be superior to Ta, resulting in the best achieved stability, whereas the difference between Ta and TaN caps is negligible. The β-to-α phase transition in the underlying Ta barrier layer is identified as the major cause responsible for the morphological instabi...