Abstract
In this work, the use of hydrogen plasma-pretreatment to enhance carbon nanotube (CNT) growth is reported for interconnect application. The cobalt tungsten phosphorous (CoWP) catalyst on copper substrate was subjected to the argon, helium and hydrogen plasma pretreatment in electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) system before the CNT growth by chemical vapor deposition from C2H2/H¬2 or CH4/H2 with or without ECR plasma enhancement CVD at 400 ℃. Results show that hydrogen plasma-pretreatment provides reduction effect on catalyst metal oxide, uniform and finer catalyst islands of CoWP substrate, resulting in denser (DCNT~1011 tubes/cm2) and longer (LCNT~400 nm) CNTs grown on the blanket CoWP and in the dual damascene via with CoWP in the via bottom.