Reverse Templating Effects of Low-Resistivity Ru ALD on Sputtered Ru

Ruthenium is a promising candidate to replace Cu as an interconnect metal due to its low resistivity in narrow vias and resistance to electromigration. In previous work, a Ru Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) process using Ru(CpEt)2 and O2 was developed to produce films with bulk-like resistivities. However, the ALD exhibits poor initial nucleation with variable initial nucleation delay causing thickness control to be difficult and high surface roughness. In this work, the effects of depositing low resistivity ALD Ru on 2 and 10-nm sputtered Ru films are investigated to eliminate the initial poor nucleation while retaining low overall film resistivity.