After chemical mechanical planarization (CMP), the reason which caused the formation of Cu-oxide defects at the interface between Cu deposit and TaN barrier layer has been studied. The experimental results of atomic force microscopy, secondary ion mass spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction demonstrated that the agglomeration phenomenon was found on Cu seed in the thickness of only 10 nm, thus resulting in the electrodeposited Cu film with more abundant C impurities at Cu/TaN interface and lower (1 1 1)/(2 0 0) ratio compared to the thick one (30 nm). Therefore it caused the Cu deposit with poor corrosion resistance and then the Cu-oxide defects were easily formed after CMP. As a result, the correlation between Cu-oxide defects at the Cu/TaN interface and the agglomeration on Cu seed layer was proposed herein. (C) 2010 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.