LUDO DEFERM, IMEC, Leuven, Belgium

The shift from aluminium to copper interconnect schemes in integrated circuits will eventually become a standard for 0.13 µm and even further scaled down CMOS processes. The introduction of Cu in 0.18 µm and larger technologies is only now taking place in some companies and for some applications, delayed largely by the problems of bringing new Curelated technologies into manufacturing. Eventually, copper combined with low-k dielectric materials using dualdamascene processing will replace standard aluminium interconnects in new technology generations.

 The Importance of Cu in New Generation Process Technologies