Arcing between the sputtering target and plasma during physical vapor deposition (PVD) of metal films is one of the primary caused of defect generation in interconnect metalization processes. With rapidly shrinking device geometries and stringent defect requirements for sub-25μm technology nodes, there is significant interest within the semiconductor manufacturing community in reducing arcing-related defects during metal deposition. Of particular interest to manufactures is the generation of defects during aluminum(Al) alloy deposition that result in catastrophic electrical shorts and opens. Such defects can vary from 0.5μm to greater than 100μm. Current commercially available micro-processors consist of five or six Al layers (0.5～2μm in thickness) where the cumulative effects of these defects can result in substantial yield loss during device manufacturing.
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