Test Chip for Electrical Linewidth of Copper-Interconnection Features and Related Parameters

Published

February 6, 2001

Author(s)

Michael W. Cresswell, N. Arora, Richard A. Allen, Christine E. Murabito, Curt A. Richter, Ashwani K. Gupta, Loren W. Linholm, D. Pachura, P. Bendix

Abstract

This paper reports a new electrical test structure for measuring the barrier-layer thickness and total physical linewidth of copper-cored interconnect features. The test structure has four critical dimension (CD) reference segments of different drawn linewidths. A new linewidth-extraction algorithm has been developed and extensively tested with and sheet-resistance measurement emulations. It has also been applied to measurements extracted from scaled-up physical structures. A second test structure for measuring conducting feature and interlayer-dielectric (ILD) thickness by use of the charge-based capacitance method (CBCM) is located on the test chip. Test-chips featuring both of these structures have been patterned in aluminum using a standard 0.18 5m CMOS process and preliminary results are reported here.

Proceedings Title

Proc., IEEE International Conference on Microelectronic Test Structures

Volume

14

Conference Dates

March 19-22, 2001

Conference Location

Kobe, 1, JA

Pub Type

Conferences

Keywords

barrier layer, copper interconnect , critical dimension (CD), cross-bridge resistor, linewidth, test structure, VLSI

Citation

Cresswell, M. , Arora, N. , Allen, R. , Murabito, C. , Richter, C. , Gupta, A. , Linholm, L. , Pachura, D. and Bendix, P. (2001), Test Chip for Electrical Linewidth of Copper-Interconnection Features and Related Parameters, Proc., IEEE International Conference on Microelectronic Test Structures, Kobe, 1, JA (Accessed October 12, 2025)