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Future interconnect materials for highly integrated semiconductor devices

Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering volume 2, pages 835–845 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

As semiconductor-based electronic technologies continue downscaling, there is an urgent need to overcome the limitations of interconnect architectures and materials that are driving an unsustainable increase in energy consumption and jeopardizing performance. In this Review, we investigate the primary causes of prolonged signal delays in interconnect systems, providing an overview of the development of key interconnect components: metals, diffusion barriers and intermetal dielectrics. We define the essential requirements and technological hurdles for next-generation materials to be industrialized within damascene processes, including topological semi-metals such as molybdenum phosphide (MoP) and 2D materials such as graphene and amorphous boron nitride (a-BN). Integrating new materials into advanced device systems offers opportunities for the advancement of interconnect technologies and highly integrated semiconductor devices.

Key points

  • As semiconductor devices relentlessly scale down, mitigating critical signal delay in interconnects requires cutting-edge materials with a low metal resistance, robust thin diffusion barrier and low intermetal dielectric (IMD) capacitance.

  • Topological semi-metals such as molybdenum phosphide (MoP) and MoTe2 for metals, 2D materials such as graphene and MoS2 for diffusion barriers, and transformed 2D materials such as amorphous boron nitride (a-BN) for IMDs hold immense potential to surpass these constraints.

  • The successful industrialization of these novel materials requires breakthroughs in the basic science to achieve ideal properties and engineering solutions to ensure seamless integration with current damascene processes.

  • The discovery of novel materials, coupled with advances in process engineering, will create interconnect technologies that offer more efficient and sustainable performance.

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Fig. 1: Evolution of device architectures and materials.
Fig. 2: Evolution of interconnect metal/barrier/IMD materials and their properties as semiconductor technology nodes advance.
Fig. 3: Emerging material candidates beyond conventional interconnects.
Fig. 4: Dual-damascene integration processes and emerging material requirements for industrialization.

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Acknowledgements

H.-J.S. acknowledges support from the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean Government Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) (grant no. RS-2024-00352458), the GIST research fund (Future-leading Specialized Research Project, 2025) and the InnoCORE programme of the MSIT (GIST InnoCORE KH0830). H.S.S acknowledges support from the Institute for Basic Science (IBS-R036-D1), Republic of Korea. M.C. acknowledges support from the European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant (grant agreement GA 101019828-2D-LOTTO) and EPSRC (EP/ T026200/1, EP/T001038/1). J.J.C. acknowledges support from the US National Science Foundation Division of Materials Research (FUSE 2328907). O.K. acknowledges REDI Program funding and a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant (no. 101034328). S.R. acknowledges 2021 SGR 00997, CERCA Programme of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Severo Ochoa Centres of Excellence Programme (grant no. CEX2021-001214-S) and MCIN/AEI/10.13039.501100011033.

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Hyeongjoon Kim, Sehun Oh, Sihyeon An, Jaewon Kim, Taehoon Kim.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan, Republic of Korea

    Hyeongjoon Kim

  2. Center for 2D Quantum Heterostructures, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Suwon, Republic of Korea

    Hyeongjoon Kim, Seohyun Jeong & Hyeon Suk Shin

  3. Department of Semiconductor Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), Gwangju, Republic of Korea

    Sehun Oh & Hyeon-Jin Shin

  4. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), Gwangju, Republic of Korea

    Sihyeon An

  5. 2D Device TU, Device Research Center, Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT), Suwon, Republic of Korea

    Jaewon Kim & Taehoon Kim

  6. Department of Energy Science, Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), Suwon, Republic of Korea

    Seohyun Jeong & Hyeon Suk Shin

  7. Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), CSIC and BIST, Campus UAB, Barcelona, Spain

    Onurcan Kaya, Thomas Galvani & Stephan Roche

  8. School of Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Onurcan Kaya

  9. Department of Electronic Engineering, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB), Campus UAB, Barcelona, Spain

    Onurcan Kaya

  10. ICREA ─ Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, Barcelona, Spain

    Stephan Roche

  11. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Judy J. Cha

  12. Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Manish Chhowalla

  13. Department of Chemistry, Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), Suwon, Republic of Korea

    Hyeon Suk Shin

  14. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), Gwangju, Republic of Korea

    Hyeon-Jin Shin

  15. GIST InnoCORE AI-Nano Convergence Institute for Early Detection of Neurodegenerative Diseases, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), Gwangju, Republic of Korea

    Hyeon-Jin Shin

Authors
  1. Hyeongjoon Kim
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  2. Sehun Oh
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  3. Sihyeon An
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  4. Jaewon Kim
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  5. Taehoon Kim
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  6. Seohyun Jeong
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  7. Onurcan Kaya
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  8. Thomas Galvani
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  9. Stephan Roche
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  10. Judy J. Cha
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  11. Manish Chhowalla
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  12. Hyeon Suk Shin
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  13. Hyeon-Jin Shin
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Contributions

H.-J.S. conceptualized this work. H.K., S.O., S.A. and H.-J.S. researched data for the article and wrote the manuscript. J.K., T.K. J.J.C., M.C. and H.S.S. contributed substantially to discussion of the content, and reviewed and edited the manuscript. S.J., O.K., T.G. and S.R. reviewed and edited the manuscript. J.J.C., M.C., H.S.S. and H.-J.S. supervised this project.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Judy J. Cha, Manish Chhowalla, Hyeon Suk Shin or Hyeon-Jin Shin.

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Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering thanks Wenzhong Bao, Yang Chai, Shengxi Huang and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Kim, H., Oh, S., An, S. et al. Future interconnect materials for highly integrated semiconductor devices. Nat Rev Electr Eng 2, 835–845 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44287-025-00233-y

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