Copper surface protection with a completely enclosed copper structure for a damascene process

As integrated circuit manufacture moving to copper interconnection for the most advanced products, protection of copper (Cu) surfaces becomes a major challenge for the back-end-of-line manufacturing process. The damages on Cu, such as Cu corrosion and oxidation, are often observed on wafers when exposing bare Cu surface in the presence of moisture and/or acidic gases. Furthermore, the Cu oxide results in poor adhesion both at Cu/barrier layer and Cu/stop layer interfaces. In this work, a novel Cu dual damascene structure which completely encloses the Cu surface with a tantalum nitride layer is presented. This capping layer avoids the Cu corrosion and oxidation due to its ability to keep moisture and acid off and away from the Cu surface.