Patent 7694413 was granted and assigned to Intel on April, 2010 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A method for forming a copper interconnect is described. An opening in a dielectric layer disposed on a substrate is formed. A barrier layer is formed on the opening. A seed layer is formed on the barrier layer. The seed layer includes a noble metal copper alloy, the copper having less than 50% of the atomic weight of the noble metal copper alloy.