Atomic layer deposition of WNx thin films using a F-free tungsten metal-organic precursor and NH3 plasma as a Cu-diffusion barrier

Abstract Tungsten nitride (WN x ) thin films were deposited on SiO 2 substrates by atomic layer deposition (ALD) using a fluorine- free tungsten metal-organic precursor of tris(3-hexyne) tungsten carbonyl, W(CO)(CH 3 CH 2 C ≡ CCH 2 CH 3 ) 3 and NH 3 plasma as a reactant at a deposition temperature of 250 °C. Important ALD characteristics, such as self-limiting growth and linear dependency of the film growth on the number of ALD cycles, were obtained with a growth rate of 0.045 nm/cycle. The minimum film resistivity of around ~2800 μΩcm (thickness: ~ 13.3 nm) was stable after 3 days air-exposure, indicating the high stability of these WN x films. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry showed that the N-rich WN x thin films (N/W ratio: ~ 1.56) were deposited with negligible impurities of C and O. Both X-ray diffractometry and transmission electron microscopy analysis showed that ALD-WN x films formed a polycrystalline cubic WN phase with an average grainsize of ~ 6 nm. From scanning Kelvin probe analysis, its work function was determined as 4.79 eV. Detail investigations were carried out after post-annealing of the as-deposited films and formation of metallic-W with significantly reduced sheet resistance was observed upon annealing at and beyond 700 °C. Finally, the ultrathin (~5 nm) ALD-grown WN x film effectively prevented diffusion of Cu even up to 550 °C, promising it as an efficient diffusion barrier material for the Cu interconnect.