HIGH-DENSITY HIGH-RELIABILITY TUNGSTEN INTERCONNECTION BY FILLED INTERCONNECT GROOVE METALLIZATION

A novel multilevel metallization scheme has been developed that uses tungsten for the primary level of interconnection. Grooves that are 1- mu m wide and 2. 0- mu m deep, corresponding to a level of line ocnductor interconnection, are pattern-etched into a planar layer of oxide dielectric. They are filled by isotropically depositing a blanket layer of pure tungsten using low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (CVD), followed by etch-back of the tungsten to produce a filled-interconnection-groove (FIG) conductor structure. Fabricated FIG conductors display an average sheet resistivity of 48 m OMEGA /square, comparable to conventional aluminum conductors. In addition, FIG metallization provides excellent planarity and greatly improved electromigration strength, and it facilitates the use of stacked vias.