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Mitigation of Electromigration in Metal Interconnects via Hexagonal Boron Nitride as an Ångström‐Thin Passivation Layer
Author(s) -
Jeong Yunjo,
Douglas Ossie,
Misra Utkarsh,
Tanjil Md RubayatE,
Watanabe Kenji,
Taniguchi Takashi,
Wang Michael Cai
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
advanced electronic materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.25
H-Index - 56
ISSN - 2199-160X
DOI - 10.1002/aelm.202100002
Subject(s) - electromigration , passivation , materials science , copper interconnect , optoelectronics , layer (electronics) , current density , monolayer , nanotechnology , nitride , composite material , physics , quantum mechanics
Electromigration in metal interconnects remains a significant challenge in the continued scaling of integrated circuits towards ever‐smaller single‐nanometer nodes. Conventional damascene architectures of barrier/liner layers and conducting metal cause inevitable compromises between device performance and feature dimensions. In contrast to contemporary barrier/liner materials (e.g., Co, Ta, and Ru), an ultrathin passivation layer that can effectively mitigate electromigration is needed. At the ultimate atomically‐thin limit, 2D materials are promising candidates given their exceptional mechanical properties and impermeability. Here, a facile and effective approach is presented to mitigating electromigration in copper (Cu) interconnects via passivation with insulating monolayer 2D hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). The hBN‐passivated Cu interconnects, compared to otherwise identical but bare Cu interconnects, exhibit on average a >20% higher breakdown current density and a >2600% longer lifetime (at a high current density of 5.4 × 10 7 A cm −2 ). Post‐mortem metrology elucidates uniform conformal contact between the hBN‐passivated Cu interface and common failure features due to electromigration.