Copper metallization of submicron trenches with pulsed vacuum arc

Conventional magnetron sputtering is not able to fill trenches and vias with aluminum or copper completely. This is due to the broad angle distribution of the incoming particles. Strong self-shadowing and noncoformal film growth lead to void creation in trenches and vias with aspect ratios even below one. A narrow angle distribution can be reached, when the particles are fully ionized. The High Current pulsed Arc (HCA) technique, developed at the IWS was succesfully used for void free trench and via filling in copper and aluminium based metallization systems. The structure is scaled down to 0.5 5m and the aspect ratio is coming up to about 2.5. The promising development of this deposition method in the last years opens the way for ist application in microelectronics. Copper filling of trenches with aspect ratio of about three and a highly conformal thin film growth will be demonstrated.