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Publication
Journal of Applied Physics
Paper
Grain growth study in aluminum films and electromigration implications
Abstract
Studies of grain structure, size, distribution, and geometric arrangement are gaining importance especially from the point of view of thin-film interconnects for micron and submicron semiconductor technologies. We have studied the effect of annealing on the grain growth characteristics of pure Al films. As-deposited films exhibit a uniform grain size distribution between 500 and 800 Å. With heat treatment, the average grain size increases with the largest grains exhibiting a parabolic growth with time, limited to a size in the neighborhood of 1 μ. Smaller grains, however, cannot be eliminated and about 30% of the grains are less than 2500 Å across. The grain boundaries of the smaller grains have a higher oxygen content than the rest of the film. Lines defined by liftoff exhibit a characteristic grain boundary seam along the length of the line. The implications of the above study in terms of processibility and reliability with respect to electromigration are also discussed.