An investigation was made of the Cu-diffusion barrier capabilities of chemical vapor deposited films of nitride, in a Cu/TiN/Si structure, which had been prepared by using tetrakis-dimethyl-amino titanium. An  in situ  treatment of the TiN films, using a N2/H2 plasma, was found to improve the Cu-diffusion barrier performance significantly. The plasma-treated films were stable at up to 650C, but as-deposited films exhibited evidence of Cu diffusion into Si; even after annealing at 550C.

D.H.Kim, S.L.Cho, K.B.Kim, J.J.Kim, J.W.Park, J.J.Kim: Applied Physics Letters, 1996, 69[27], 4182-4