PEALD Ru/RuOx films for ULSI applications and its transition control between metal and metal oxide
Ruthenium (Ru) is a promising material for the future backend of line of semiconductor technologies beyond 20 nm. In this work, high quality Ru and ruthenium oxide (RuO<sub>x</sub>) thin films were grown on SiO<sub>2</sub> substrates by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) technique using bis-(ethylcyclopentadienyl)-ruthenium [Ru(EtCp)<sub>2</sub>] as the precursor and oxygen (O<sub>2</sub>) plasma as the reducing agent. The impacts of O<sub>2</sub> plasma and H<sub>2</sub> annealing on the film properties will be discussed. Finally, we found a feasible method to control the transition between Ru and RuO<sub>x</sub> films.