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Stress Relaxation during Isothermal Annealing at Elevated Temperatures in Electroplated Cu Films

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Soo-Jung Hwang
Affiliation:
School of Materials Science & Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 151–742, Korea Dept. of Materials Science & Engineering, Tohoku University, Sendai 980–8579, Japan
Young-Chang Joo
Affiliation:
School of Materials Science & Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 151–742, Korea
Junichi Koike
Affiliation:
Dept. of Materials Science & Engineering, Tohoku University, Sendai 980–8579, Japan
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Abstract

Deformation mechanisms of electroplated Cu thin films on TaN/SiO2/Si were investigated by performing isothermal annealing above 200 °C. Stress relaxation behavior during isothermal annealing was analyzed by curve fitting using exponential decay equations. During heating, fast relaxation and subsequent slow relaxation processes were observed. In contrast, during cooling, only slow relaxation process was observed. Among possible mechanisms for stress relaxation, diffusion creep was found to be the most plausible mechanism based on the obtained values of the activation energy. It was suggested that the slow relaxation process observed both in the heating and in the cooling processes was attributed to a grain-boundary diffusion creep. On the other hand, the fast relaxation process observed during heating was attributed to a surface-diffusion controlled mechanism. The surface diffusion mechanism was considered to be characteristic to Cu thin films that did not form stable surface oxide.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2004

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References

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