Characterization of Ru and RuO2 thin films prepared by pulsed metal organic chemical vapor deposition

Ultra-thin ruthenium (Ru) layers were fabricated by pulsed metal organic chemical vapor deposition in an Aixtron Tricent reactor using a metal-organic Ru precursor. Layer deposition was performed on different metal barrier combinations and on Al2O3 dielectric layers used in the fabrication of advanced Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) capacitor structures and on thermal SiO2 as reference structure. Ru layers with a thickness of 10 nm were characterized by Spectroscopic Ellipsometry (SE) and additional reference methods such as Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), and X-Ray Reflectometry (XRR). As deposited and in situ annealed Ru layers were characterized by SE applying Drude-Lorentz- and Effective Medium Approximation (EMA) models. It was shown that the deposited layers consist of a Ru-RuO2 bilayer structure. By in situ annealing, the RuO2 layer thickness is reduced and highly pure Ru films are obtained. On the metal barriers the formation of a metal oxide interface, which is related to the deposition process, was determined. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)