Surface treatment of copper to improve interconnect formation

The present invention provides, in one embodiment, a method of forming a copper layer ( 100 ) over a semiconductor substrate ( 105 ). The method comprises coating a copper seed layer ( 110 ) located over a semiconductor substrate with a protective agent ( 120 ) to form a protective layer ( 125 ). The method also includes placing the semiconductor substrate in an acid bath ( 145 ) to remove the protective layer. The method further includes electrochemically depositing a second copper layer ( 155 ) on the copper seed layer. Such methods and resulting conductive structures thereof may be advantageously used in methods to manufacture integrated circuits comprising copper interconnects.