Oxidation resistance of tantalum–ruthenium dioxide diffusion barrier for memory capacitor bottom electrodes

The effect of the RuO2 addition into a Ta film on the oxidation resistance of a diffusion barrier for the Ta+RuO2/Si system was investigated. The Ta+RuO2/Si system was sustained up to 800 °C without an increase in resistivity, while the Ta/Si structure completely degraded after annealing at 450 °C. The Ta+RuO2 diffusion barrier showed an amorphous microstructure for an as-deposited state and formed a conductive RuO2 phase after annealing. Ta was sufficiently bound to oxygen of RuO2 for an as-deposited state, but RuO2 was divided into Ru and Ru–O binding states. Ta–O bonds showed a little change compared to the as-deposited state with increasing annealing temperature, whereas Ru–O bonds significantly increased. Therefore, the Ta layer deposited by the RuO2 addition effectively prevented the indiffusion of oxygen up to 800 °C and its oxidation resistance was superior to those of polycrystalline nitride (TiN, TaN) and ternary amorphous (TaSiN) barriers reported by others.