Plasma and process characterization of high power magnetron physical vapor deposition with integrated plasma equipment—feature profile model

Abstract

High power magnetron physical vapor deposition (HPM-PVD) has recently emerged for metal deposition into deep submicron features in state of the art integrated circuit fabrication. However, the plasma characteristics and process mechanism are not well known. An integrated plasma equipment-feature profile modeling infrastructure has therefore been developed for HPM-PVD deposition, and it has been applied to simulating copper seed deposition with an Ar background gas for damascene metalization. The equipment scale model is based on the hybrid plasma equipment model [M. Grapperhaus et al., J. Appl. Phys. 83, 35 (1998); J. Lu and M. J. Kushner, ibid., 89, 878 (2001)], which couples a three-dimensional Monte Carlo sputtering module within a two-dimensional fluid model. The plasma kinetics of thermalized, athermal, and ionized metals and the contributions of these species in feature deposition are resolved. A Monte Carlo technique is used to derive the angular distribution of athermal metals. Simulations show that in typical HPM-PVD processing, Ar+ is the dominant ionized species driving sputtering. Athermal metal neutrals are the dominant deposition precursors due to the operation at high target power and low pressure. The angular distribution of athermals is off axis and more focused than thermal neutrals. The athermal characteristics favor sufficient and uniform deposition on the sidewall of the feature, which is the critical area in small feature filling. In addition, athermals lead to a thick bottom coverage. An appreciable fraction (∼10%) of the metals incident to the wafer are ionized. The ionized metals also contribute to bottom deposition in the absence of sputtering. We have studied the impact of process and equipment parameters on HPM-PVD. Simulations show that target power impacts both plasma ionization and target sputtering. The Ar+ ion density increases nearly linearly with target power, different from the behavior of typical ionized PVD processing. The total metal flux to the wafer increases with target power due to enhanced target sputtering. However, the ionization fraction of the total flux decreases due in part to the increased diffusion loss of charged species. Wafer bias power controls ion energy, and it has a negligible impact on plasma ionization and deposition flux composition. Feature simulations show the redistribution of deposited metals within a feature when wafer resputtering is promoted at sufficient bias power. Target-wafer spacing (TWS) impacts the total ionization and metal flux to the wafer. The Ar+ density and deposition rate decrease with increasing TWS due to increased surface loss. Simulations suggest that reducing the TWS results in more efficient usage of target source.