As integrated circuit manufacture moving to copper interconnection for the most advanced products, protection of copper (Cu) surfaces becomes a major challenge for the back-end-of-line manufacturing process. The damages on Cu, such as Cu corrosion and oxidation, are often observed on wafers when exposing bare Cu surface in the presence of moisture and/or acidic gases. Furthermore, the Cu oxide results in poor adhesion both at Cu/barrier layer and Cu/stop layer interfaces. In this work, a novel Cu dual damascene structure which completely encloses the Cu surface with a tantalum nitride layer is presented. This capping layer avoids the Cu corrosion and oxidation due to its ability to keep moisture and acid off and away from the Cu surface. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.