The manufacturing method of a semiconductor device 100 in an embodiment of the present invention is explained using
First, in the step shown in
A MOS transistor 20 is shown in
The MOS transistor 20 is configured with a gate electrode 22 provided on a semiconductor substrate 1 through a gate insulation film 21, a side-wall insulation film 23 provided on the side face of the gate electrode 22, and source and drain layers 24 each provided in the surface of the semiconductor substrate SB outside of both side faces in the gate length direction of the gate electrode 22.
Moreover, because the semiconductor integrated circuit containing the MOS transistor 20 is formed with a known technique, the explanation of the manufacturing method in omitted.
Next, an under-layer insulation film 1 having a thickness of 300 to 500 nm covering the semiconductor integrated circuit is provided by forming a silicon oxide film on the entire surface of the semiconductor substrate SB with a CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) method, for example.
After that, an opening part 1b is provided reaching to the source and drain layers 24 of the MOS transistor 20 by boring through the under-layer insulation film 1 with anisotropic etching.
Next, in the step shown in
Next, in a step shown in
Next, an inter-layer insulation film 3 (a first low-k film) having a thickness of about 100 nm is provided by forming an SiOC film, that is a silicon oxide film in which carbon is added, having a specific dielectric constant of 2.3 to 3.0 on the entire surface of the inter-layer insulation film 2 with a plasma CVD method, for example.
Moreover, the dielectric constant of the SiOC film formed with a plasma CVD method can be changed from 2.0 to 3.5 with good controllability with a process condition (types and flow rate of gas, high frequency power, gas pressure, wafer temperature, etc.) of the plasma CVD method. However, the process condition is set in the present embodiment so that the specific dielectric constant becomes any of specific dielectric constants in the range of 2.3 to 3.0.
An MSQ (Methylsilisesquioxane) film having the same film composition and molecular structure as the SiOC film can be applied to the inter-layer insulation film 2 similarly to the SiOC film.
The MSQ film is formed with a coating method called a spin-on method, similar to the SiOC film in composition, and the specific dielectric constant can be changed from 2.0 to 3.4 with good controllability similarly to the SiOC film by changing the molecular weight of the raw material polymer of the coating material. Moreover, because there exist pores in the MSQ film having a specific dielectric constant of 2.5 or less, there is a case that the film is particularly referred to as a porous MSQ film.
After forming the inter-layer insulation film 3, the mechanical strength of the SiOC film is improved by carrying out a UV cure process (a first curing) according to the present invention to the inter-layer insulation film 3. Moreover, a process condition of the UV cure process is explained later.
Next, in a step shown in
After that, in a step shown in
After that, the barrier metal layer BM1 and a wiring layer 3a (a first wiring layer) as shown in
Next, in a step shown in
Next, an inter-layer insulation film 8 (a second low-k film) having a thickness of about 250 nm is provided by forming an SiOC film having a specific dielectric constant of 2.3 to 3.0 on the entire face of the inter-layer insulation film 7 with a plasma CVD method, for example. Moreover, an MSQ film may be formed with a spin-on method instead of the SiOC film.
After forming the inter-layer insulation film 8, the mechanical strength of the SiOC film is improved by carrying out a UV cure process (a first curing) according to the present invention to the inter-layer insulation film 8. Moreover, a process condition of the UV cure process is explained later.
Next, in a step shown in
Next, in a step shown in
After that, the barrier metal layer BM1 and a wiring layer 8a (a second wiring layer) as shown in
Next, the UV cure process according to the present invention is explained in detail.
A technique of performing UV cure in a non-oxidized atmosphere is shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-274052 explained above, and oxygen is considered to be harmful conventionally in the UV cure.
However, it is confirmed in an experiment by the present inventors that a 3-membered ring Si—O bond shown in
Here,
Such a change of the structure is observed with an FT-IR method (a Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy method).
Here, differential spectra of the FT-IR spectrum before and after the UV cure are shown in
The wave number corresponds to the infrared energy that is absorbed, and the type of the bond can be known from the wave number corresponding to a peak of the spectrum.
A rising peak in a positive direction of the differential spectrum shows a peak caused by a bond increasing after the UV cure, and 3-membered ring Si—O bonds and Si—H bonds increase after the UV cure in the conventional UV cure as can bee understood from
The 3-membered ring Si—O bond and the Si—H bond are in an unstable bonding state in the network of Si—O bonds, and they have a characteristic to produce an Si—OH bond by reacting with an oxygen radical excited by H2O (water) in the atmosphere or plasma, and to become a stable state.
Therefore, it can be considered that process damage that the SiOC film on which the UV cure is performed receives from an etching step, a resist ashing step, and a cleaning step is promoted by an increase of the 3-membered ring Si—O bond and the Si—H bond.
It is shown in
The present inventors reached a technical idea that adding a small amount of oxygen in the atmosphere gas in the chamber in which the UV cure is carried out is effective in order to suppress the production of the 3-membered ring Si—O bond and the Si—H bond.
In the UV cure process of the present invention, a semiconductor substrate SB (
After that, the UV cure is carried out by introducing a small amount of an oxygen gas in the chamber adjusted to an atmospheric pressure or a little more positive pressure than the atmospheric pressure with the nitrogen purge. With this operation, an impurity gas other than the oxygen gas is prevented from entering the chamber.
When the oxygen gas is introduced, the oxygen gas is introduced while controlling the flow rate using a flow meter, the oxygen concentration is monitored with an oxygen concentration meter provided in the chamber, and in the case that a fixed concentration is achieved, the introduction of the oxygen gas is stopped.
In such a manner, by introducing the oxygen gas while controlling the flow rate in the chamber, the oxygen gas can be added easily in the case that oxygen is consumed as UV cure proceeds and the oxygen concentration is lowered.
Here, the adjustment is performed using the flow meter so that the concentration of oxygen in the UV chamber becomes a constant value in the range of 5 ppm to 400 ppm, more desirably in the range of 25 ppm to 100 ppm throughout the entire UV cure process.
When it is in the range of 25 ppm to 100 ppm, there is an advantage that control of the gas flow rate is easy.
Further, in the present embodiment, a mercury lamp having a wavelength band of 200 nm to 600 nm is used for the UV lamp, and the wafer temperature at the time of UV cure is set in the range of 300° C. to 450° C.
The process condition of the UV cure process used in the present embodiment is shown in Table 1.
The differential spectrum IV shown in
It is understood from
Further, the SiOC film that has already been Lw cured according to the present invention shown in
The reason for this is considered that a small amount of oxygen introduced into the chamber makes the decomposition of the Si—CH3 group (
From the above result, a conclusion is reached in which the mechanical strength of the SiOC film can be improved without spoiling process damage resistance by performing the Lw cure process on the SiOC film in the UV cure condition of an oxygen concentration of 50 ppm.
Moreover, when the UV cure according to the present invention is performed to the inter-layer insulation film 3 as one example of the improvement of mechanical strength, the modulus of elasticity increased from 8 GPa to 12 GPa, and therefore, it is confirmed that the mechanical strength improved by about 50%.
A differential spectrum of the FT-IR spectrum in the case of changing the oxygen concentration in the range of 25 ppm to 100 ppm is shown in
In
In
Moreover, in
Moreover, although not shown in
However, because a concentration of 5 ppm or less cannot be measured, there is a possibility that the above-described characteristics appear actually at 2 to 3 ppm.
Further, it is confirmed that the upper limit of the oxygen concentration in which the differential spectrum having the above-described characteristics can be obtained is 400 ppm.
Therefore, it can be said that the effect by the UV cure process according to the present invention can be given by setting the oxygen concentration in the UV chamber in the range of 5 ppm to 400 ppm.
In the embodiment according to the present invention explained above, an example is shown in which the UV cure is performed by introducing a small amount of an oxygen gas in the chamber in which the UV cure is performed. However, the added gas is not limited to an oxygen gas, and the same effect can be obtained as long as it is a gas containing oxygen.
For example, the mechanical strength of the SiOC film can be improved without spoiling the process damage resistance with a gas generally used in semiconductor manufacturing such as a CO gas, a CO2 gas, or an N2O gas.
Further, in order to obtain the same effect as in the case of the oxygen gas with these gasses, a greater amount must be introduced. However, this becomes an advantage.
That is, in the case of the oxygen gas, the above-described effect can be obtained even with a concentration of 10 ppm or less. However, it is difficult to control the flow rate of the oxygen gas to achieve a concentration of 10 ppm or less in actuality because the concentration can be achieved with a small flow rate that is close to the lower limit of the flow rate control in the existing flow meter.
However, because a greater flow rate of the above-described gasses is needed than the oxygen gas in order to reach the same oxygen concentration, there are advantages that the flow rate control can be performed with good controllability even with the existing flow meter, and it is easy to handle.
Further, the above-described gasses containing oxygen may be used alone instead of an oxygen gas. However, they may be used by mixing with an oxygen gas.
Also in this case, because there is a necessity to increase the gas flow rate compared with the case of using only an oxygen gas, there are advantages that the flow rate control can be performed with good controllability even with the existing flow meter, and it is easy to handle.
In the embodiment according to the present invention explained above, an example is shown in which an oxygen gas is introduced by adjusting the chamber in which the UV cure is performed to an atmospheric pressure or a little more positive pressure by nitrogen purge. However, the mechanical strength of the SiOC film can be improved without spoiling the process damage resistance by introducing a small amount of oxygen even in the case of performing the UV cure in a state that the pressure inside the chamber is reduced after introducing a gas such as nitrogen, helium, or argon.
In the embodiment according to the present invention explained above, an example is shown in which the UV cure is performed by introducing a small amount of oxygen gas in the chamber in which the UV cure is performed. However, the same effect can be obtained by using oxygen remaining in the chamber and not introducing the oxygen gas actively.
That is, a deposition is generated on the inner wall of the chamber and the UV light irradiation window for the UV cure as a wafer process is performed. When the deposition increases, a trouble occurs in the UV cure, and therefore cleaning to remove the deposition is needed regularly.
This cleaning is an operation of performing the UV light irradiation while introducing an oxygen gas in the chamber that is in the state that a wafer is not loaded, and removing the deposition with ozone generated by the UV light irradiation, and this is performed before the UV cure process.
After finishing the cleaning, the oxygen gas is exhausted by nitrogen purge, and a wafer is loaded. However, oxygen remains in the chamber even after the nitrogen purge although it is in a small amount.
The remaining amount of the oxygen is about a few ppm to 10 ppm. However, the mechanical strength of the SiOC film can be improved without spoiling the process damage resistance with such an extremely small amount of the remaining oxygen.
Because oxygen has been conventionally considered to be harmful, oxygen has been made to be zero by a long-time nitrogen purge or vacuuming of the chamber after the cleaning is finished. However, in the case of adopting the above-described method, oxygen is made to remain in the chamber by reducing the nitrogen purge time or by not performing the vacuuming.
Further, not using the remaining gas of the oxygen gas used for the cleaning, the oxygen gas may be introduced in the chamber prior to the UV cure process, and then exhausted by the nitrogen purge, and a wafer is loaded.
Also in this case, the remaining amount of oxygen becomes about a few ppm to 10 ppm, and the mechanical strength of the SiOC film can be improved without spoiling the process damage resistance.
In the embodiment according to the present invention explained above, an example is shown in which the UV cure process is performed on the semiconductor substrate SB right after the inter-layer insulation film 3 is formed (
Specifically, the UV cure process (the second curing) according to the present invention is performed on each of the surfaces of the low-k film exposed to inside the opening part 3b and the opening parts 8b and 8c in the steps shown in
That is, in the case of forming the opening part 3b and the opening parts 8b and 8c with dry-etching, the surface of the low-k films (the inter-layer insulation films 3 and 8) receive damage from the plasma used in the etching or the resist removal.
The damage layer is represented with an X mark in
In this damage layer, the Si—CH3 group included in the low-k film (the SiOC film in the embodiment) changes, a large amount of the Si—OH groups are produced, and it has come to the state of easily absorbing water from the atmosphere. It is necessary to remove such water as much as possible because it hinders the normal growth of the barrier metal and the Cu plating film to be formed on the top part of the low-k film.
The UV cure process of the present invention is also effective to the property modification of such damage layer, and the Si—OH group existing in the damage layer in a large amount can be changed to a network of Si—O bonds with a dehydration-condensation reaction.
Then, the network of Si—O bonds produced with the UV cure process according to the present invention have a strong process damage resistance from the cleaning step, for example, and the property modification of the damage layer can be performed more effectively.
While the invention has been shown and described in detail, the foregoing description is in all aspects illustrative and not restrictive. It is therefore understood that numerous modifications and variations can be devised without departing from the scope of the invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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JP2006-285808 | Oct 2006 | JP | national |