Cobalt Binary Compounds for Advanced Interconnect Materials

TL;DR

This paper explores cobalt binary compounds as promising alternatives to copper for advanced interconnects, using high-throughput screening to identify materials with superior electronic and reliability properties at nanoscale dimensions.

Contribution

It introduces a high-throughput screening approach to identify Co-based binary compounds with improved electronic transport and reliability for next-generation interconnects.

Findings

Identified Co-based compounds with superior electronic properties

Demonstrated potential to surpass copper in reliability at nanoscale

Highlighted new materials for advanced interconnect technology

Abstract

The industrial standard copper (Cu) interconnects face a substantial resistivity increase at thinner linewidths, posing a well-known challenge to limit overall device performance. To address this issue, we have evaluated the potential properties of cobalt (Co) based binary compounds as replacements for Cu. Co is considered as a promising alternative due to its potential for enhanced reliability and low resistivity at sub-nanoscale dimensions. Furthermore, the combination of elements provides a possibility to engineer novel properties, transcending the limitations of elemental metals and expanding the search space for next-generation interconnects. In this study, a high-throughput screening method was used to identify several Co-based binary compounds with superior electronic transport and reliability at reduced thickness. The findings demonstrate that specific Co-based binary compounds hold significant potential to overcome the performance limitations of scaled interconnects.