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Publication
Applied Physics Letters
Paper
Origin of stress gradients induced in capped, copper metallization
Abstract
Stress gradients generated near the top surface of Cu thin films by capping layers, as measured using a combination of conventional and glancing incidence x-ray diffraction, exhibit heterogeneous behavior that is directly related to plastic anisotropy within the Cu grains. A comparison of stress gradients measured from several x-ray reflections to their corresponding Schmid factors yields a consistent, critical resolved shear stress. The results experimentally verify that dislocation-mediated plasticity is responsible for the creation of stress gradients at the Cu film/cap interface. Depth-dependent measurements reveal that the observed gradients are localized to within 200 nm of this interface. © 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.