Material Property Analysis of Amorphous Metallic Thin Films as Diffusion Barrier Layer

Abstract

Amorphous metallic films have been considered to be the most effective barriers layer for Cu metallization due to the absence of grain boundaries and immiscibility with copper. The time and cost required for nano-scale experimant may be exceedingly large, and for this reason molecular dynamics have been used to analyze the material properties of CuAg amorphous metal films in this study, including the glass transition process of amorphous metal films, the effect of composition ratio and quenching rate on the internal microstructure of amorphous metal films, diffusion properties and the strength of the interface between polycrystalline and amorphous thin film. The results show that for CuAg alloys, Cu20Ag80 present 50% amorphous at quenching rate of 25 K/ps, but Cu40Ag60 and Cu60Ag40 present more than 95% of the amorphous at quenching rate between 0.25 K/ps and 25 K/ps, which indicates that it has a good glass forming ability. For the diffusion side, the better barrier performance will be with the higher of the amorphous ratio.