Superior Aluminum for Interconnections of Integrated Circuits

Abstract

The electromigration strength of aluminum can be increased at least by more than ten times by the addition of aluminum oxide. Improvements in hillock formation, superior corrosion resistance, electrical resistivity similar to standard aluminum, and higher permissible annealing temperatures make aluminum‐aluminum oxide alloy more attractive than standard aluminum for both bipolar and field‐effect‐transistor semiconductor technologies using single as well as multilevel metallization.