Interactions in metallization systems for integrated circuits

Abstract

Conductive films are required to provide interconnection between contacts on the devices and between devices and outside world. Aluminum has been the most popular metal. Conducting polycrystalline silicon (polysilicon) film has been the conductor for gate and interconnection. PtSi has been used as a Schottky barrier contact and also simply as a contact for deep junctions. Refractory silicides are now used as gate and interconnection metallizations. Titanium/palladium/gold or titanium/platinum/gold beam lead technology was successful in providing high reliability connection to the outside world. Several similar schemes have been suggested or used in the integrated circuits. A considerable amount of work is carried out in adopting such a metallization scheme in integrated circuits. These include a study of metallurgical and chemical interactions between various materials and effect of such interactions on the properties of the materials and devices. In this paper a review of these studies will be presented.