Ultrathin titanium nitride layers grown on three different dielectrics were studied to examine how low-energy ions change the chemical composition at and near their interface. Comparisons were made by growing titanium nitride under similar conditions both with (ion-assisted) and without (reactive) nitrogen ions. Although the chemical reactions between the titanium nitride and the three dielectrics under both growth conditions depend on the type of dielectric used, a few general observations were seen. In comparison with the reactively grown samples, all of the ion-assisted growths show a significant increase in the amount of nitride in the titanium nitride layer at and near the titanium nitride/dielectric interface. Moreover, the amount of chemical binding between the titanium nitride and dielectric is increased when low-energy ions are used. Finally, by using angle resolved x-ray photoemission it was determined that the enhancement in the deposition process from low-energy ions occurs without inducing significant intermixing between the titanium nitride layer and the dielectric.

Ultra-thin titanium and tantalum nitride layers grown on three different dielectrics were studied to examine how low-energy ions change the chemical composition at and near their interface. Comparisons were made by growing titanium and tantalum nitride under similar conditions both with (ion-assisted) and without (reactive) nitrogen ions. Although the chemical reactions between the nitrides and the three dielectrics under both growth conditions depend on the type of dielectric used, a few general observations were seen. In comparison with the reactively grown samples, all of the ion-assisted growths show a significant increase in the amount of nitride in the nitride layer at and near the nitride/dielectric interface. Moreover, the amount of chemical binding between the titanium nitride and dielectric is increased when low-energy ions are used. Angle resolved x-ray photoemission determined that the enhancement in the deposition process from low-energy ions occurs without inducing significant intermixing between the nitride layer and dielectric. Although thicker layers of titanium nitride show a difference in the grain structure from ion deposition1, the ultra-thin layers grown in this work do not have any dependence with ion-assisted growth for the samples measured.

In this letter two different growth methods, reactive evaporation and ion-assisted reactive evaporation, were used to grow titanium nitride films on the polyimide biphenyl tetracarboxylic acid dianhydride-para phenylene diamine. The films were examined with x-ray photoemission spectroscopy and it was found that the chemical properties of the film depend on the distance from the polyimide/titanium nitride interface. While both techniques produced very similar films at distances greater than 5 nm from the interface, only the ion-assisted grown film had a significant amount of nitride near the interface. This is due to the ability of low-energy (100 eV) nitrogen ions to break the initial titanium/polyimide bonds which would otherwise prevent the growth of titanium nitride at the interface.

The adhesion of Al(Cu-Si) line structures on thin films of BPDA-PDA with different surface preconditioning were examined by measuring the deformation energy of the metal and interface. The properties of BPDA-PDA/Al(Cu-Si) were examined with atomic force microscopy (AFM). Although different sputtering treatments profoundly affect the adhesive properties, the sputtering does not appreciably change the topology of the BPDA-PDA. We also found evidence that even though the thickness of the interface can be very small (3–5 nm), the polymer/metal interface can greatly affect the deformation behavior of the entire system.