The adhesion strength of copper layers on TaN barrier layers decreases from 19.5 to 10 gf with annealing at 400degreesC. A much lower stress layer can be obtained when a seed layer is deposited on a TaSiN barrier layer. The adhesion strength is as high as 35 gf and is not changed by annealing. The critical pressure for delamination at the barrier layer/low dielectric (epsilon) layer interface decreases from 350 to 200 g/cm(2) when epsilon is reduced from 3.3 to 2.7 in an SiOC interlayer. That is, better adhesion strength can be attained when an interlayer with a higher dielectric constant is used. (C) 2003 The Electrochemical Society.