Leading Logic Manufacturer

Rapid Customized R&D for a Specific Device Layer

The Challenge

The customer needed to improve electro-migration performance of a certain 45nm and 32nm device; one aspect was improving the effective selectivity of a cobalt alloy using a molecular masking layer for capping copper interconnects.

The Project

Conducting R&D to meet the needs of a specific device layer would typically be cost- and time-prohibitive, but Intermolecular engineered a system to evaluate 60 different molecule types while varying up to eight different parameters (deposition time/temperature, solvents/catalysts, substrate types, etc.). In just five weeks, more than 7,600 experiments and 18,000 characterization sets were run by four engineers using only one lot of wafers.

Results

Out of 7,200 candidates, two combinations were selected for electrical test, and have been qualified as compatible with high-volume manufacturing on the customer’s production lines for the 32nm generation. The logic manufacturer now has a custom-engineered material, specific to one of its devices, developed in a timely and cost-effective R&D process.