This invention relates to a method and apparatus for forming a film on a substrate particularly, although not exclusively, to a film which is deposited on a semiconductor silicon wafer with flowing properties and retains carbon-containing groups on setting.
A number of methods have been disclosed for depositing a thin film on a semiconductor wafer, and examples included U.S. Pat. No. 5,314,724, U.S. Pat. No. 489,753, U.S. Pat. No. 5,593,741, EP-A-0731982 and EP-A-0726599. It can be seen from these that, up until recently, organic-containing silicon precursors have been processed or further processed in such a way as to avoid or subsequently remove organic components from the as-deposited film; this is, for example, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,314,724. In addition, for some applications, it has been found to be difficult to retain both good film quality and good gap-fill capability on the surfaces and in recesses of a wafer on which the film is deposited.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of forming a film on a substrate comprising:
The present invention provides a method of forming an unset film. Typically, the film is flowable (that is a film with a degree of surface mobility) and may thus provide good gap fill properties on the substrate.
It should be understood that without affecting the generality of this invention where gap fill properties are not required, e.g. for InterMetal Dielectric (IMD) layers on a semiconductor, then a flowing intermediate film will not be required. However the intermediate film deposited according to this invention will contain OH, which is almost entirely removed by the ‘setting’ process.
The formation of an OH and CH containing intermediate which is then further processed to remove OH but contain CH enables the formation of improved dielectric layers.
The substrate may be a semiconductor wafer, for example a silicon semiconductor wafer of the type known in the art.
Preferably, the oxidising agent is oxygen, although others could be used, for example H2O2.
For example, the silicon-containing organic compound may be an organosilane or an organosiloxane. Preferably, the silicon-containing organic compound is an alkylsilane, and even more preferably is a tetraalkysilane. In a particularly preferred embodiment of the invention, the silicon-containing organic compound is tetramethylsilane (TMS). However, for example, other organosilanes or organosiloxanes could be used, one example being 1,1,3,3-tetramethyldisiloxane (TMDS).
Experiments suggest that methoxysilanes, and in particular methoxymethylsilanes, produce films with very low dielectric constants and may be particularly preferred.
Particularly good results have been achieved with cyclohexyldimethoxymethylsilane (CHDMMS) which has the following structure:
Experiments have also shown that a methoxysilane (e.g. CHDMMS) may be able to be processed as in the above method described, but without any oxidising agent present in the plasma. It is supposed that this is because the Si—O bond already exists as part of the methoxy group.
Accordingly, according to another aspect the invention consists in a method of forming a film on a substrate comprising:
The film may be deposited on a substrate positioned on a low-temperature support for example, a support at a temperature of about 0° C. Indeed temperatures in the range 0° C. to 70° C. have produced practical results, with temperatures of 30° and 50° C. proving particularly practical.
In one embodiment, the method may further comprise supplying RF power during deposition of the film. This RF power is preferably applied to a showerhead or the like through which the gaseous precursors are passed into the chamber.
Whilst any suitable experimental conditions may be used, it has been found that typical conditions include a flow rate of 210 sccm tetramethylsilane, a flow rate of 200 sccm O2, a chamber pressure of 2000 mT, a support temperature of 0° and a showerhead temperature of 100° C., and 250 watts of 380 khz RF power applied to the showerhead, although it is pointed out that these are only typical conditions.
The setting of the film may be carried out by an annealing step, for example at a temperature of about 450° C. which serves to remove water from the deposited film. It has been found that typical k value of the set film is about 2.55, for example for a 6000 Å thick film deposited with a base layer (prior to deposition of the film) or capping layer (on the formed layer) after an annealing step at about 450° C. in the absence of oxygen. This k value is a measure of the dielectric constant and it can be seen that the present invention provides a particularly low dielectric constant.
Alternatively, and often preferably, the setting step is performed by exposing the deposited film to an H2 containing plasma without any prior heating of the film. In this connection it is preferred that the support is not biased during the deposition stage to avoid heating arising from ion bombardment.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of forming a film on a substrate comprising:
The setting step can be performed as set out above.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for forming a film on a substrate, the apparatus comprising:
The apparatus may, in one embodiment, further comprise means for improving the uniformity of the deposition of the film on the substrate. This may be arranged in the region of, or around, a showerhead and, whilst the applicant is not to be restricted hereby, it is thought that its role in the uniformity of deposition is possibly as a result of providing a site for surface reactions about the surface periphery thus enhancing deposition rate at the edge of the substrate.
Although the invention has been defined above, it is to be understood that it includes any inventive combination of the features set out above or in the following description.
The invention may be performed in various ways and a specific embodiment will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, an in which:
a) and 3(b) are scanning electron micrographs showing the annealed film formed by the present invention;
Referring to
In use, the apparatus 1 is arranged to deposit a water and/or OH containing intermediate layer on a wafer which may be flowable and may be used to produce a planar layer or for “gap filling” for applications such as pre-metal dielectric, shallow trench isolation and intermetal dielectric on semiconductor devices. The film is formed by introducing into the chamber tetramethylsilane and oxygen in gaseous or vapour form and reacting them within the chamber. This forms an intermediate layer with a degree of surface mobility even when a plasma is present. It has been found that very small dimensioned gaps can be filled by the process of the present invention. This is not to restrict the invention as often process conditions may yield an intermediate layer containing OH that does not flow but still retains the other characteristics of this invention. The reaction takes place in the presence of a plasma. Subsequently, the film is annealed by heating, preferably in the absence of oxygen and most preferably in the presence of a hydrogen containing plasma.
The precursor tetramethylsilane (TMS) has been applied with various other precursors, a platen temperature of approximately 0° C. and RF power of either low (e.g. 380 Khz) or high (e.g. 13.56 Mhz) frequency where indicated. The basic results were as follows:
A ‘preferred’ process was then developed consisting of:
210 sccm TMS (calculated from fill rate checks)
200 sccm O2
2,000 mT pressure
0° platen temperature and 100° C. showerhead temperature
250 watts of 380 khz RF power applied to the showerhead.
This yielded a k value of 2.55 (measured by CV techniques) for a 6,000 Å thick film deposited without base or capping after an anneal at approximately 450° C. in the absence of oxygen.
It can thus be seen that a film has been deposited containing water and/or OH which is subsequently removed by the annealing step and that CH3 is present, is bonded to Si and remains in the film after annealing to form the hard film.
Generally, an indicator of low k characteristics is a high Peak Area Ratio (PAR) between Si—C and Si—O on the FTIR. It is believed Si—C bonds block Si—O bonds and thus reduce the density of the resultant film. Hence, a high Peak Area Ratio Si—C:Si—O is indicative of a low k film. It was however noted that for these plasma deposited and annealed films the measured k values were not as low as the Peak Area Ratio Si—C:SiO would suggest from non-plasma deposited low k films deposited from a reaction of methylsilane and peroxide.
Films of this invention as annealed as shown in
In general, the following effect of changing the parameters in a process have been observed:
An experiment has particularly been carried out using cyclohexyldimethoxymethylsilane (CHDMMS). As is reported below this has shown significantly reduced dielectric constants. It is anticipated that benefits will be found from many methoxysilane compounds such as tetramethoxysilane.
The experiments were carried out in a chamber substantially as shown in
All processes were run with plasmas applied to the showerhead. All wafers were ‘set’ by annealing for typically 30 minutes at approximately 480° C.
The following parameter ranges have been investigated:
It will be appreciated that the relative flow rates are particularly relevant to the process. In general higher rates lead to higher deposition rates and thus a broad range of flow rates can achieve similar results. Thus values outside the above ranges may be applicable.
Two particularly preferred process examples are given below: one of these is with oxygen and one is without oxygen.
The resultant films were annealed and the post anneal results were as follows:
As can be seen the dielectric constants in each case are desirably low, but the “with oxygen” process is significantly advantageous.
In fact, initial experiments were carried out using a CHDMMS source consisting of a PTFE pot within an evacuated aluminium vessel which was heated to 150° C. The pot was connected by gas line to a gas mass flow controller suitable for H2O with a conversion factor of 1.000. The RF power was applied to the showerhead with a spacing from the wafer of 40 mm. The RF was 380 khz continuous mode. Results from these experiments are shown in
CHDMMS has a boiling point of 201.2° C., and a density of 0.940 g/cc. As it was noted in these experiments that CHDMMS deposits a low k insulator without the addition of an oxidising agent it is therefore possible that it could be delivered as a liquid to a semiconductor wafer without a chamber being required (e.g. by well known ‘spin-on’ techniques) and then reacted either thermally or by plasma to form a low k (k<3) insulator layer. The apparatus used may in effect deposit a liquid by vaporising the liquid precursor, delivering it as a vapour and then condensing it onto the wafer at a temperature below the boiling point of the precursor at that pressure. It is not yet clear if the reactions to the precursor take place on the wafer or at some other place, depositing reaction products onto the wafer.
Having developed a more suitable liquid delivery system which utilises a syringe pump, further experiments were carried out as shown in
Further experiments have been carried out using the following conditions:
The ratio of TMS (tetramethylsilane) to oxygen is the same as previously (approximately equal quantities), but at half the total flow rates. In this preferred process nitrogen has been used, primarily as a dilutant.
Thermal treatment step (“setting” or “anneal”)
In the process above, where the process platen temperature was varied, the results were as follows
Once more the initial deposition process puts down a water and/or OH containing intermediate film which needs to be set to substantially remove the water and/or OH to create a low k layer. For the purposes of the above experiment this setting was achieved by a thermal treatment step as indicated. However other post deposition processes have been experimented with, as can be seen below. The significant features of this experiment were both the continued achievement of a dielectric constant below 3 and the observation that both the refractive index (which is believed to be a measurement of density) and the dielectric constant dipped when a platen temperature of 30° was used. These results are consistent with the normal understanding that dielectric constant and density are related for a specific film composition, so that lower refractive index will normally indicate a lower dielectric constant.
Subsequent to this experiment a further set of films were formed using the following process matrix:
The films resulting from this process were set either by the annealing process (which is hereinafter referred to as FTM treatment) or process and/or by treating the film with an H2 plasma treatment.
Alternatively other RF frequencies could be used applied to any electrode or electrodes either internal or external to the wafer containing chamber such as to create or sustain ionised hydrogen species adjacent to the film to be treated. This is to include remote plasma sources including microwave and inductively completed RF sources wherever situated.
The H2 plasma may also contain other components e.g. effectively inert dilutants for example argon, helium or other gasses or vapours that do not detract from this treatment.
In
It will be noted that a very short H2 plasma treatment (e.g. 1 minute) does not render the film totally stable nor does it reduce significantly the dielectric constant below an FTM anneal although the film is still comparable with other reported films. Wet etch rate experiments have demonstrated that the hydrogen plasma treatment starts at the top of the film. The longer the plasma process, the greater the depth treated the lower the k value of the treated film. The hydrogen plasma treated film etches considerably (e.g. 20 or more times) slower than the FTM treated film. It will also be observed that an H2 plasma treatment is also not effective in reducing dielectric constant after a previous heating or anneal step.
Turning now to
It is believed that similar results would be achieved with most flowable or water and/or OH containing films that retain carbon, more particularly CH, in the finally used dielectric layers.
Thus the inventors have, in particular determined a process for depositing a flowable or at least OH containing intermediate film which is subsequently set using heat in the absence of oxygen and preferably in the presence of an H2 containing plasma with the result that the film has a dielectric constant below 3 and, with the application of hydrogen plasma, a reduced dielectric constant and a good resistance to oxidising strip. It is postulated that this combination results from the surprising fact that H2 treatment reduces the dielectric constant whilst increasing the refractive index and hence, almost certainly the density as evidenced by a greatly reduced wet etch rate.
Further evidence for this is illustrated in
SIMS (secondary ion mass spectrometry) data of a TMS+O2 deposited film that has been hydrogen plasma treated for 5 minutes has been generated. [The horizontal axis is through the depth of the sample starting at just above the surface and ending in the silicon wafer. What is shown is an organic contaminated (high C) sample surface (to be ignored), followed by a ‘true’ analysis].
The SIMS profile shows a film surface depleted of carbon and hydrogen by the hydrogen plasma treatment. This is a not unsurprising result and is consistent with a measurable difference in the dielectric constant of this surface layer and the bulk of the film. When this surface is etched away the remainder of the film (adjusted for it's reduced thickness) has a lower dielectric constant than the whole of the film including this surface layer. Yet the whole film including this carbon depleted surface has a lower k value than an FTM treated film.
Wet etch rate experiments show that the hydrogen plasma treatment commences at the upper surface and progresses through the film. The hydrogen plasma treated film wet etches considerably more slowly than an FTM treated film and thus provides clear evidence that depth of treatment increases with plasma treatment times.
It is postulated that the hydrogen plasma treatment effectively replaces Si—CH3 in the film with Si—CH2—Si (by intermediate reactions in which hydrogen ions and radicals play a part) with increased Si—Si linkage responsible for the increase in the refractive index.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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9914879.3 | Jun 1999 | GB | national |
9922691.2 | Sep 1999 | GB | national |
9922693.8 | Sep 1999 | GB | national |
9922801.7 | Sep 1999 | GB | national |
0000780.7 | Jan 2000 | GB | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/GB00/02301 | 6/26/2000 | WO | 00 | 3/29/2001 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO01/01472 | 1/4/2001 | WO | A |
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