AVS 46th International Symposium
    Electronic Materials and Processing Division Thursday Sessions
       Session EM1-ThM

Paper EM1-ThM11
Low-k Si-O-C-H Composite Films Prepared by Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition using BTMSM(bis-trimethylsilylmethane) Precursor

Thursday, October 28, 1999, 11:40 am, Room 608

Session: Cu, Low-k Dielectrics and Interfaces
Presenter: Y.-H. Kim, Seoul National University, Korea
Authors: Y.-H. Kim, Seoul National University, Korea
H.J. Kim, Seoul National University, Korea
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As the ultra-large scale integrated circuits(ULSI) are shrunk to deep sub-micron dimension, RC signal delay, cross-talk, and power consumption are seriously increased. Therefore, there has been a strong demand for low-k inter-metal dielectric materials instead of the conventional SiO@sub 2@ in order to improve the performance of ULSI devices. Many researchers have proposed various organic and inorganic materials as the substitute for SiO@sub 2@. Among them, silicon oxide-based dielectric materials containing alkyl groups have been attractive alternatives due to their high thermal stability. The steric hindrance of the alkyl groups remains nano-pores in silicon oxide and the dielectric constant is decreased. Therefore, in order to get lower value of dielectric constant, the more alkyl groups have to be included in silicon oxide. However, the over-much alkyl groups could degrade the thermal stability of this material. To achieve good thermal stability as well as the low dielectric constant, we prepared the Si-O-C-H composite films by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition using bis-trimethylsilylmethane(BTMSM, H@sub 9@C@sub 3@-Si-CH@sub 2@-Si-C@sub 3@H@sub 9@), which is neither toxic nor flammable. Major feature of this precursor is a very strong Si-CH@sub 2@-Si bond between two silicon atoms, therefore, the Si-O-C-H composite films deposited using BTMSM were expected to have good thermal stability as well as low dielectric constant. To investigate the thermal stability of the Si-O-C-H composite films, FT-IR analysis and capacitance-voltage measurement were carried out before and after heat-treatment. Film morphology and step coverage were examined by the electron microscopy (SEM and TEM).