Microstructures of Al and Cu interconnects

The electron backscatter diffraction technique (EBSD) has been used to measure the microstructure of reactive ion etched(RIE) Al and damascene Cu interconnects, including the grain size, grain orientation and grain boundary characteristics. Linewidths of Cu interconnects, as well as the anneal processes of Al and Cu interconnects impacting on the microstructures and causing the electromigration failure were analyzed.