Thermal stability, adhesion and electronic resistivity of the Cu alloy films with diffusion barrier elements (large atom Sn and small atom C) have been studied. Ternary Cu (0.6 at.% Sn, 2 at.% C) films were prepared by magnetron co-sputtering in this work. The microstructure and resistivity analysis on the films showed that the Cu (0.6 at.% Sn, 2 at.% C) film had better adhesion with the substrate and lower resistivity (2.8 μΩ·cm, after annealing at 600 °C for 1 h). Therefore, the doping of carbon atoms makes less effect to the resistivity by decreasing the amount of the doped large atoms, which results in the decreasing of the whole resistivity of the barrierless structure. After annealing, the doped elements in the film diffused to the interface to form self-passivated amorphous layer, which could further hinder the diffusion between Cu and Si. So thus ternary Cu (0.6 at.% Sn, 2 at.% C) film had better diffusion barrier effect. Co-doping of large atoms and small atoms in the Cu film is a promising way to improve the barrierless structure.
