EP0696819A1
Expired / Lapsed
EP
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Diamond-like carbon for use in VLSI and ULSI interconnect systems
Assignee: International Business Machines Corp
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Filing: 1995-06-14
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2015-06-14
Abstract
Abstract The present invention relates to semiconductor devices comprising as one of their structural components diamond-like carbon (20) as an insulator for spacing apart one or more levels of a conductor (16,22) on an integrated circuit chip. The present invention also relates to a method for forming an integrated structure and to the integrated structure produced therefrom. The present invention further provides a method for selectively ion etching a diamond-like carbon layer (20) from a substrate (12) containing such a layer.
Inventors
- 👤 Stephan Alan Cohen
- 👤 Daniel Charles Edelstein
- 👤 Alfred Grill
- 👤 Jurij Rostyslav Paraszczak
- 👤 Vishnubhai Vitthalbhai Patel
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-30 23:46
CPC Classifications
H; H10; H10P; H10P14/00; H10P14/60; H10P14/68; H10P14/683; H10P14/687; H10W; H10W20/00; H10W20/40; H10W20/45; H10W20/48; H10P14/63; H10P14/6326; H10P14/6328; H10P14/6334; H10P14/6336; H10P14/69; H10P14/6902
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 18
Claim 1
Independent Claim
63 words
An insulator for spacing apart one or more levels of conductors on an integrated circuit semiconductor device comprising: a substrate having an upper surface with an exposed first area of metal; an insulator layer of diamond-like carbon material formed on said upper surface of said substrate; and a second layer of metal patterned to form a plurality of conductors on said insulator layer.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
56 words
The insulator of the semiconductor device of claim 1 with said substrate further having an exposed second area of insulation selected from the group consisting of SiO₂ and a diamond-like carbon material and with said device further comprising a metal feed through electrically connecting selected first areas to one or more of said plurality of conductors.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
37 words
The insulator of the semiconductor device of claim 1 or 2 wherein the exposed first area of metal is at least one metal selected from the group consisting of Al, Cu, W, Ta, Ti and alloys thereof.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
45 words
The insulator of the semiconductor device of any of the preceding claims 1 to 3 wherein the diamond-like carbon material is selected from the group consisting of hydrogenated amorphous carbon, amorphous carbon, amorphous diamond, fluorinated hydrogenated amorphous carbon, fluorinated amorphous carbon and fluorinated amorphous diamond.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
43 words
The insulator of the semiconductor device of any of the preceding claims 1 to 4 wherein the diamond-like carbon material is formed by a process selected from the group consisting of plasma assisted chemical vapor deposition, sputtering, ion beam deposition and laser ablation.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
42 words
The insulator of the semiconductor device of any of the preceding claims 1 to 5 wherein the substrate is an integrated circuit chip containing at least one transistor, preferably a field effect transistor (FET) or a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) device.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
159 words
An interconnect structure for use on an integrated circuit chip comprising: a substrate having an upper surface with first conductive regions; a first layer of diamond-like carbon material selected from the group consisting of hydrogenated amorphous carbon, amorphous carbon, amorphous diamond, and fluorinated diamond-like carbon, wherein said diamond-like carbon material is doped with v atomic percent Si or Ge; a second layer of diamond-like carbon material selected from the group consisting of hydrogenated amorphous carbon, amorphous carbon, amorphous diamond, and fluorinated diamond-like carbon, wherein said diamond-like carbon material is doped with w atomic percent Si or Ge, wherein v and w are the same or different and are in the range from about 0 to about 25; said second layer having a first interconnect pattern of a first metal formed on said second layer; and said first and second layers having studs of a second metal interconnecting selected ones of said first conductive regions and said first interconnect pattern.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
24 words
The interconnect structure of claim 7 wherein v is from about 5 to about 15 and w is from about 2 to about 15.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
31 words
The interconnect structure of claim 7 or 8 wherein the fluorinated diamond-like carbon includes at least 1 atomic percent fluorine atoms covalently bound to carbon atoms of said fluorinated diamond-like carbon.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
21 words
The interconnect structure of any of the preceding claims 7 to 9 wherein said diamond-like carbon material is hydrogenated amorphous carbon.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
33 words
The interconnect structure of any of the preceding claims 7 to 10 wherein the first metal and the second metal are selected from the group consisting of Al, Cu, W and alloys thereof.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
41 words
The interconnect structure of any of the preceding claims 7 to 11 further including a third metal layer between sidewalls of said first layer of said first or said second metals and said first or second layer of diamond-like carbon materials.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
24 words
The interconnect structure of claim 12 wherein said third metal is selected from the group consisting of Ta, Ti, W, Cr and alloys thereof.
Claim 14
Independent Claim
345 words
A method for forming an interconnect structure on a substrate having conductive regions on an upper surface comprising the steps of: forming a first layer of diamond-like carbon material selected from the group consisting of hydrogenated amorphous carbon, amorphous carbon, amorphous diamond, and fluorinated diamond-like carbon on said upper surface of said substrate, wherein said diamond-like carbon material is doped with v atomic percent Si or Ge; forming a second layer of diamond-like carbon material selected from the group consisting of hydrogenated amorphous carbon, amorphous carbon, amorphous diamond, and fluorinated diamond-like carbon on said first layer, wherein said diamond-like carbon material is doped with w atomic percent Si or Ge; forming a third layer of diamond-like carbon material selected from the group consisting of hydrogenated amorphous carbon, amorphous carbon, amorphous diamond, and fluorinated diamond-like carbon on said second layer, wherein said diamond-like carbon material is doped with x atomic percent Si or Ge; forming a fourth layer of diamond-like carbon material selected from the group consisting of hydrogenated amorphous carbon, amorphous carbon, amorphous diamond, and fluorinated diamond-like carbon on said third layer, wherein said diamond like carbon material is doped with y atomic percent Si or Ge; forming a fifth layer of diamond-like carbon material selected from the group consisting of hydrogenated amorphous carbon, amorphous carbon, amorphous diamond, and fluorinated diamond-like carbon on said fourth layer, wherein said diamond-like carbon material is doped with z atomic percent Si or Ge, wherein v, w, x, y and z are the same or different and are in the range from about 0 to about 25; forming a first mask over said fifth layer having openings above selected ones of said conductive regions; etching through said first mask and said fifth through first layers; removing said first mask; forming a second mask over said fifth layer having an interconnect pattern for interconnecting said selected ones of said conductive regions; etching through said second mask and said fifth and fourth layers; and filling said openings in said first through fifth layers and said fourth and fifth layers with metal.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
24 words
The method of claim 14 further including the step of chem-mech polishing said metal and said fifth layer to form a planar upper surface.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
35 words
The method of claim 14 or 15 wherein at least one but not all of the diamond-like carbon layers are replaced with another dielectric material, said another dielectric material being silicon oxide or silicon nitride.
Claim 17
Independent Claim
99 words
A method for selectively etching diamond-like carbon comprising the steps of: selecting a substrate having an upper surface; forming a first layer of diamond-like carbon doped with v atomic % of Si or Ge on said upper surface of said substrate, wherein v is from about 0.1 to about 25. forming a second layer of diamond-like carbon over said first layer; forming a patterned layer over said second layer; introducing gas containing O₂; reactive ion etching said second layer where exposed through said patterned layer; and terminating said reactive ion etching step prior to etching through said first layer.
Claim 18
Independent Claim
85 words
A method for forming patterns in SiO₂ comprising the steps of: selecting a substrate having an upper surface; forming a layer of diamond-like carbon material over said upper surface of said substrate; forming a layer of SiO₂ over said material; forming a patterned layer over said SiO₂ layer; introducing a gas containing fluorine, preferably containing CF₄; reactive ion etching said SiO₂ layer where exposed through said patterned layer; and terminating said reactive ion etching step prior to etching through said layer of diamond-like carbon material.
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