TEM investigation of Ti and Ti/Al bilayer as alternative diffusion barriers for Cu metallization for SAW device applications

The thermal stability of Ti and Ti/Al thin barrier layers for Cu metallizations of surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices has been investigated by resistance measurements and analytical transmission electron microscopy (TEM) using energy dispersive analysis (EDX), energy filtered analysis (EFTEM) within a temperature range between RT and 300 °C. Due to the strong increase of the sheet resistance of the sample containing the Ti/Al-barrier, structural changes in the Al layer lead to a failure at 300 °C, whereas the other sample containing Ti only as a barrier layer did not show any obvious structural changes.