AVS 62nd International Symposium & Exhibition
    Thin Film Thursday Sessions
       Session TF-ThP

Paper TF-ThP18
Enhanced Mechanical Properties of Boron Doped Amorphous Carbon Films by UV Laser Annealing

Thursday, October 22, 2015, 6:00 pm, Room Hall 3

Session: Thin Films Poster Session
Presenter: ChulMin Youn, Sejong University, Republic of Korea
Authors: C.M. Youn, Sejong University, Republic of Korea
T. Choi., Sejong University, Republic of Korea
J.Y. Yang, TES Co. Ltd., Republic of Korea
K.P. Park, TES Co., Ltd., Republic of Korea
G.H. Hur, TES Co., Ltd., Republic of Korea
Correspondent: Click to Email
The hard forms of amorphous carbon (a-C, diamond like carbon) include hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H) and tetrahedral amorphous carbon have raised interest as coating materials. Recently, boron doped amorphous carbon films have been studied as hard mask materials of 3D vertical NAND flash memory. Hard mask was demanded to enhance critical dimension (CD) uniformity, anti-etching and lifting while decreasing thickness. Boron has been widely known efficient dopant for passivating the oxidation of various carbon materials. We have prepared boron doped amorphous carbon film deposited with the fixed B2H6 flow rate as a function of the process temperature using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). We investigated the physical and optical properties of film with the refractive index, hardness and chemical bonding configuration. Especially, the effect of ultraviolet (UV) laser annealing on the hardness was studied. UV annealing caused a change of chemical bonding configuration, i.e., sp2/sp3 bonding ratio and C-H bonds, through analysis of the Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) and RAMAN spectrum. It is found that a significant enhancement of hardness could be attributed to surface confined graphitization and increase of the sizes of sp2 and sp3 clusters, which occur without any damage of surface and delamination of films. In addition, the influence of laser annealing on the stress relief behavior and electronic properties of boron doped amorphous carbon layers will be discussed. Our approach can offer easy control of surface properties of amorphous carbon materials.