Tungsten as an Interconnect Material for NextGeneration IC Design

Abstract

Over the last few decades, technology have seamlessly transfer from Aluminium to Copper, as aluminium has deemed as an unsuitable metal when it is in the nanoscale due to associated drawbacks. Although with the challenge of having to replace copper, it has been one of the most consistent materials in the wire dimension area. However, getting a material as ideal as copper is proving to be more inefficient as scale down the wire deeper. There has been a spurt in the research of Tungsten (W) and its Oxides (WOx) as a potential replacement to the issues posed by copper. In general, tungsten has been proven to be superior to most existing interconnect materials and has been only put behind Silver and Copper. However, as technology reach the nanoscale, there has been increasing studies on how to fabricate tungsten and its subsidiaries as an alternate to other materials. The purpose of this research is to study Tungsten and other existing interconnect materials and compare them on theoretical and observational basis. The number of simulations has been carried out using the COMSOL software in various environments in order to see how tungsten behaves in all environments and propose whether it is suitable in the upcoming generation of ICs and beyond.