IUVSTA 15th International Vacuum Congress (IVC-15), AVS 48th International Symposium (AVS-48), 11th International Conference on Solid Surfaces (ICSS-11)
    Dielectrics Monday Sessions
       Session DI2-MoP

Paper DI2-MoP1
Deposition of Si-C-O-H Alloy Dielectric Films as a Low Dielectric Permittivity Insulators

Monday, October 29, 2001, 5:30 pm, Room 134/135

Session: Low K Dielectrics Poster Session
Presenter: B.K. Hwang, Dow Corning Corporation
Authors: B.K. Hwang, Dow Corning Corporation
M.J. Loboda, Wacker Siltronic Corporation
W.D. Gray, Dow Corning Corporation
G.A. Cerny, Dow Corning Corporation
R.F. Schneider, Dow Corning Corporation
J.A. Seifferly, Dow Corning Corporation
D.W. Roehl, Dow Corning Corporation
Correspondent: Click to Email
As the feature size in ultra large scale integrated circuit (ULSI) decreases, the minimization of interconnect resistance - capacitance (RC) coupling through the use of copper interconnect metalization and low dielectric permittivity (low-k) has become an intensive interest to the semiconductor industry. Among many low-k candidate materials, carbon-doped silicon oxides, i.e., Si-C-O-H alloy dielectric films have been investigated. These films can be deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) of organosilicon gas, (CH3)xSiH4-x, and oxidant mixtures. In this study, we will present the structure, composition, and electrical characteristics of PECVD Si-C-O-H films with different process parameters. The precursor gas mixture used in this study is the trimethylsilane (Dow Corning Z3MS(TM), Semiconductor Grade), oxygen (O2), and helium (He). Samples of Si-C-O-H films were deposited on silicon wafers using a 200mm PECVD reactor. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry and hydrogen forward scattering spectrometry (RBS/HFS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were evaluated to understand the composition and structure of films. The electrical properties such as a dielectric constant, leakage current density, and dielectric breakdown voltage were tested with a metal-insulator-silicon (MIS) structure. The typical film properties of this study are as follows: (1) FTIR spectra indicate that the hydrogen and carbon are incorporated in the form of Si-(CH2)n-Si, Si-H, Si-CH3, and Si-C into a SiO2 backbone. (2) Composition of Si-C-O-H film : Si / O / C / H = 0.2 / 0.36 / 0.12 / 0.32 (based on RBS/HFS). (3) Bulk film density : 0.97 (g/cm3). (3) Dielectric constant (k) at 1MHz : 2.7 ~ 3.2 and k value has a strong relationship with Si-OH content. (5) Leakage current density : 3x10-10 (A/ cm2) at 0.5 (MV/cm) (6) Dielectric breakdown field : > 4 (MV/cm).