Inventors:
Cindy Reidsema Simpson - Austin TX
Robert Douglas Mikkola - Austin TX
Matthew T. Herrick - Austin TX
Brett Caroline Baker - Austin TX
David Moralez Pena - Buda TX
Edward Acosta - San Marcos TX
Rina Chowdhury - Austin TX
Marijean Azrak - Austin TX
Cindy Kay Goldberg - Austin TX
Mohammed Rabiul Islam - Austin TX
Assignee:
Motorola Inc. - Schaumburg IL
International Classification:
H01L 2144
Abstract:
A method for electroplating a copper layer (118) over a wafer (20) powers a cathode of an electroplating system (10) in a manner that obtains improved copper interconnects. A control system (34) powers the cathode of the system (10) with a mix of two or more of: (i) positive low-powered DC cycles (201 or 254); (ii) positive high-powered DC cycles (256 or 310); (iii) low-powered, pulsed, positive-power cycles (306 or 530); (iv) high-powered, pulsed, positive-powered cycles (212, 252, 302, or 352); and/or (v) negative pulsed cycles (214, 304, 510, 528, or 532). The collection of these cycles functions to electroplate copper or a like metal (118) onto the wafer (20). During electroplating, insitu process control and/or endpointing (506, 512, or 520) is performed to further improve the resulting copper interconnect.