Nucleation of Tungsten on Titanium Nitride with Hydrogen Reduction of Tungsten Hexafluoride

In this work, a hydrogen (H2) reduction process has been developed which gives tungsten (W) nucleation on titanium nitride (TiN) adhesion layers with a very short incubation time, eliminating the need for a silane (SiH4reduced seed layer. The nucleation was found to be strongly dependent on the following factors: temperature of the substrate, total pressure in chamber, and gas introduction sequence into the reactor. Theenhanced nucleation rate has been explained based on two competing reactions: dissociation of H2, and formation of titanium subfluorides on the TiN surface.