Patent Application
20170342548
This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. 2016-103494, filed on May 24, 2016, in the Japan Patent Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
The present disclosure relates to a method of forming a carbon film, an apparatus of forming a carbon film and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium.
Carbon is getting a lot of attention as one of the materials used in a patterning process of a next-generation semiconductor device. In such a patterning process, a good buriability for a stepped shape is required.
As a film forming method which obtains such a good buriability for a stepped shape, a coating method has been studied but there is a problem in heat resistance.
Meanwhile, a plasma CVD method or a thermal CVD method has been generally known as a method of forming a carbon film.
However, in the case of forming a carbon film using the plasma CVD method, a film formation temperature may be kept at a low level (in a range of 100 to 500 degrees C. in the related art), but step coverage is poor. As such, the plasma CVD method may not be suitable for forming a carbon film on an underlying film having irregularities such as a line pattern, a hole pattern or the like.
In addition, in the case of forming a carbon film using the thermal CVD method, a step coverage is relatively good, but a film formation temperature needs to be kept at a high level (in a range of 800 to 1,000 degrees C. in the related art). Even if film formation conditions are optimized, there is a limit that the film formation temperature falls within a range of 600 to 800 degrees C. For example, in view of a thermal history with respect to a transistor formed on a silicon wafer, the plasma CVD method may not be suitable for use in a process applied to an upper layer portion of a semiconductor device.
In this regard, it has been proposed that a pyrolysis temperature drop gas is used to drop a pyrolysis temperature, when forming a carbon film by a thermal CVD method which achieves a good step coverage with respect to a hydrocarbon-based carbon source gas used as a film-forming raw material. Specifically, there is known a technique which drops a pyrolysis temperature using a Cl2 gas as a pyrolysis temperature drop gas and lowers a film formation temperature to about 300 to 500 degrees C.
However, it has been confirmed that, in the case of using the Cl2 gas as the pyrolysis temperature drop gas, when the film formation temperature reaches 350 degrees C. or higher, specifically, 450 degrees C. or higher, an underlying silicon film is damaged due to etching caused by the Cl2 gas. In addition, it has been confirmed that, in the case of forming a film on an Si film, there is a possibility that adhesivity deteriorates to such a degree that a film peeling is invoked even in a film thickness of about 10 nm.
Some embodiments of the present disclosure provide a carbon film forming method and a carbon film forming apparatus, which are capable of suppressing damage to an underlying film and forming a carbon film with good adhesivity, in a case where a film formation is performed at a low temperature using a pyrolysis temperature drop gas, and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for implementing the method.
According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a method of forming a carbon film on a workpiece, which includes: loading the workpiece into a process chamber; and supplying a hydrocarbon-based carbon source gas and a pyrolysis temperature drop gas for dropping a pyrolysis temperature of the hydrocarbon-based carbon source gas into the process chamber, pyrolyzing the hydrocarbon-based carbon source gas by heating the hydrocarbon-based carbon source gas at a temperature lower than a pyrolysis temperature of the hydrocarbon-based carbon source gas, and forming the carbon film on the workpiece by a thermal CVD method. An iodine-containing gas is used as the pyrolysis temperature drop gas.
According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided an apparatus of forming a carbon film on a workpiece, which includes: a process chamber configured to accommodate the workpiece on which the carbon film is to be formed; a process gas supply mechanism configured to supply a process gas into the process chamber; a heating device configured to heat the workpiece accommodated in the process chamber, a loading mechanism configured to load the workpiece into the process chamber, and a control part configured to control the process gas supply mechanism, the heating device, and the loading mechanism such that the aforementioned method is performed.
According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program that operates on a computer and controls a carbon film forming apparatus, wherein the program, when executed, causes the computer to control the carbon film forming apparatus so as to perform the aforementioned method.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate embodiments of the present disclosure, and together with the general description given above and the detailed description of the embodiments given below, serve to explain the principles of the present disclosure.
Reference will now be made in detail to various embodiments, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present disclosure. However, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that the present disclosure may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, systems, and components have not been described in detail so as not to unnecessarily obscure aspects of the various embodiments.
The present inventor's conducted research over and over to solve the aforementioned problems. Consequently, the present inventor's found the facts that, by using an iodine-containing gas as a phyrolysis temperature drop gas, it is possible to confirm a behavior completely different from that when using a Cl2 gas, and to drastically reduce an amount of halogen contained in a film, without causing damage to an underlying film and degradation of adhesivity.
As illustrated in
The outer wall 101 and the inner wall 102 are spaced apart from each other in a horizontal direction with an annular space 104 defined between the outer wall 101 and the inner wall 102. A lower end portion of each of the outer wall 101 and the inner wall 102 is bonded to a base member 105. An upper end portion of the inner wall 102 is spaced apart from the ceiling of the outer wall 101 so that an upper side of the process chamber S communicates with the annular space 104. The annular space 104 communicating with the upper side of the process chamber S serves as an exhaust path. A gas supplied to and spread in the process chamber S flows from a lower side of the process chamber S to the upper side thereof so as to be sucked into the annular space 104. An exhaust pipe 106 is connected to, for example, a lower end portion of the annular space 104, and is connected to an exhaust device 107. The exhaust device 107 is configured to include a vacuum pump or the like, exhausts the process chamber S, and adjusts an internal pressure of the process chamber S to have a pressure adapted for a process.
A heating device 108 is installed to surround the process chamber S outside the outer wall 101. The heating device 108 adjusts an internal temperature of the process chamber S to have a temperature adapted for a process, and heats the plurality of wafers W in batches.
The lower side of the process chamber S communicates with an opening 109 formed in the base member 105. A cylindrical manifold 110 formed of, for example, stainless steel is connected to the opening 109 via a seal member 111 such as an O-ring or the like. A lower end portion of the manifold 110 is opened. Through this opening, a wafer boat 112 is inserted into the process chamber S. The wafer boat 112 is made of, for example, quartz, and has a plurality of posts 113. Grooves (not shown) are formed in each of the posts 113. A plurality of substrates to be processed is supported by the grooves in a lump. Thus, the plurality of, e.g., 50 to 150 wafers, as the substrates to be processed, can be mounted in the wafer boat 112 in multiple stages. The wafer boat 112 with the plurality of wafers W mounted therein is inserted into the process chamber S so that the plurality of wafers W can be accommodated in the process chamber S.
The wafer boat 112 is placed on a table 115 via a heat-insulating tube 114 made of quartz. The table 115 is supported on a rotary shaft 117 that penetrates through a lid portion 116 made of, for example, stainless steel. The lid portion 116 opens and closes an opening defined at the lower end portion of the manifold 110. For example, a magnetic fluid seal 118 is installed in the penetration portion of the lid portion 116 to hermetically seal and rotatably support the rotary shaft 117. Furthermore, a seal member 119 configured as, for example, an O-ring is installed between a peripheral portion of the lid portion 116 and the lower end portion of the manifold 110 to maintain a sealing property of the interior of the process chamber S. The rotary shaft 117 is installed at a front end of an arm 120 supported by an elevating mechanism (not shown) such as, for example, a boat elevator or the like. Thus, the wafer boat 112, the lid portion 116 and the like are integrally moved up and down in a vertical direction so as to be inserted into and extracted from the process chamber S.
The film forming apparatus 100 includes a process gas supply mechanism 130 configured to supply a gas used for a process, into the process chamber S.
The process gas supply mechanism 130 in this embodiment includes a hydrocarbon-based carbon source gas supply source 131a, a pyrolysis temperature drop gas supply source 131b, an inert gas supply source 131c, and a seed gas supply source 131d.
The hydrocarbon-based carbon source gas supply source 131a is coupled to a gas supply port 134a through a mass flow controller (MFC) 132a and an opening/closing valve 133a. Similarly, the pyrolysis temperature drop gas supply source 131b is coupled to a gas supply port 134b through a mass flow controller (MFC) 132b and an opening/closing valve 133b. The inert gas supply source 131c is coupled to a gas supply port 134c through a mass flow controller (MFC) 132c and an opening/closing valve 133c. The seed gas supply source 131d is coupled to a gas supply port 134d through a mass flow controller (MFC) 132d and an opening/closing valve 133d. Each of the gas supply ports 134a to 134d is installed to penetrate through a sidewall of the manifold 110 in a horizontal direction, and spreads a gas supplied thereto toward the interior of the process chamber S defined above the manifold 110.
A hydrocarbon-based carbon source gas supplied from the hydrocarbon-based carbon source gas supply source 131a is to form a carbon film by a thermal CVD method.
Examples of the hydrocarbon-based carbon source gas may include a hydrocarbon-containing gas expressed as at least one of the following molecular formulas:
CnH2n+2;
CmH2m; and
CmH2m−2
In some embodiments, an example of the hydrocarbon-based carbon source gas may include a benzene gas (C6H6).
Examples of hydrocarbon expressed as the molecular formula CnH2n+2 may include:
Examples of hydrocarbon expressed as the molecular formula CmH2m may include:
Examples of hydrocarbon expressed as the molecular formula CmH2m−2 may include:
An iodine-containing gas is used as the pyrolysis temperature drop gas supplied from the pyrolysis temperature drop gas supply source 131b. The iodine-containing gas has a function of dropping the pyrolysis temperature of the hydrocarbon-based carbon source gas using its catalyst function to lower a film formation temperature of the carbon film by the thermal CVD method.
As the iodine-containing gas, it may be possible to use an organic iodine compound. Hydrocarbon iodide such as methyl iodide (CH3I), ethyl iodide (C2H5I), isopropyl iodide (C3H7I) or the like may be used as the organic iodine compound. Alternatively, an oxygen-containing gas such as ethyl iodine acetate (ICH2COOC2H5) or the like may be used as the organic iodine compound.
An inert gas supplied from the inert gas supply source 131c is used as a purge gas or a dilution gas. As the inert gas, it may be possible to use, for example, a noble gas such as an N2 gas, an Ar gas or the like.
A seed gas supplied from the seed gas supply source 131d serves to form a seed layer, before forming a carbon film. The seed layer is formed to shorten an incubation time of the carbon film. As the seed gas, it may be possible to use an aminosilane-based gas. The aminosilane-based gas may include butylaminosilane (BAS), bis-tertiary-butylaminosilane (BTBAS), dimethylaminosilane (DMAS), bis-dimethylaminosilane (BDMAS), trisdimethylaminosilane (TDMAS), diethylaminosilane (DEAS), bis-diethylaminosilane (BDEAS), di-propylaminosilane (DPAS), diisopropylaminosilane (DIPAS), and the like. Furthermore, the supply of the seed gas is not essential.
The film forming apparatus 100 includes a control part 150. The control part 150 includes a process controller 151 configured as, for example, a microprocessor (computer). Respective components of the film forming apparatus 100 are controlled by the process controller 151. A user interface 152 and a memory part 153 are connected to the process controller 151.
The user interface 152 includes an input part provided with a touch panel display, a keyboard or the like for performing an input operation or the like of a command in order to manage the film forming apparatus 100 by an operator, and a display part including a display or the like for visually displaying an operation state of the film forming apparatus 100.
The memory part 153 stores a so-called process recipe including a control program for realizing various kinds of processes to be executed by the film forming apparatus 100 under the control of the process controller 151 or a program for causing each of the respective components of the film forming apparatus 100 to execute a process according to process conditions. The process recipe is stored in a storage medium of the memory part 153. The storage medium may be a hard disk or a semiconductor memory, or may be a portable one such as a CD-ROM, a DVD, a flash memory or the like. Furthermore, the process recipe may be suitably transmitted from another device, for example, via a dedicated line.
If necessary, the process recipe is read from the memory part 153 by an operator's instruction or the like inputted from the user interface 152. The process controller 151 causes the film forming apparatus 100 to execute a process according to the read process recipe.
Next, one embodiment of a carbon film forming method of the present disclosure, which is implemented by the film forming apparatus of
First, for example, as illustrated in
In this state, the seed gas supply source 131d initially supplies a seed gas, for example, an aminosilane-based gas, to adsorb the same onto a surface of the wafer (onto the amorphous silicon film 3). Thus, a seed layer 4 for shortening the incubation time of the carbon film is formed (step S2,
Subsequently, after purging the interior of the process chamber S, a process of forming a carbon film 5 is performed by a thermal CVD which does not use a plasma assist (step S3,
In the film forming process of the carbon film using the thermal CVD of step S3, as the hydrocarbon-based carbon source gas supplied from the hydrocarbon-based carbon source gas supply source 131a, a hydrocarbon-containing gas, for example, a C5H8 gas, is supplied into the process chamber S. As a pyrolysis temperature drop gas supplied from the pyrolysis temperature drop gas supply source 131b, an iodine-containing gas, for example, an ethane iodide (C2H5I) gas, is supplied into the process chamber S. By heating and pyrolyzing the hydrocarbon-based carbon source gas at a predetermined temperature lower than a respective pyrolysis temperature, the carbon film 5 is formed on the surface of the wafer W by the thermal CVD.
Once the formation of the carbon film is completed, the process chamber S is exhausted by the exhaust device 107, and a purge gas, for example, an N2 gas, is supplied from the inert gas supply source 131c into the process chamber S to purge the process chamber S. Thereafter, the process chamber S is returned to an atmospheric pressure, and subsequently, the wafer boat 112 is moved down to unload the wafers W from the process chamber S.
In the present embodiment, the carbon film is formed by dropping a pyrolysis temperature of the hydrocarbon-based carbon source gas using the pyrolysis temperature drop gas exhibiting a catalyst effect up to a temperature lower than the pyrolysis temperature of the carbon source gas. That is to say, it is possible to lower the temperature of 600 degrees C. or higher (in a range of 800 to 1,000 degrees C. in the related art, specifically, a range of 600 to 800 degrees C. for the optimization of the conditions), which is conventionally required for forming the carbon film in the thermal CVD method using the hydrocarbon-based carbon source gas, to a lower temperature, thus forming the carbon film at a low temperature of about 300 degrees C.
However, in the aforementioned related art, a gas containing a halogen gas has been described to be used as the pyrolysis temperature drop gas and the gas has been described to preferably contain only a halogen element rather than a compound gas. In practice, an example using a Cl2 gas has been described. Furthermore, in the aforementioned related art, there is disclosed on an effect of extracting hydrogens (H) from a hydrocarbon-based carbon source gas (CxHy), for example, an ethylene gas (C2H4), using the Cl2 gas as the pyrolysis temperature drop gas, and decomposing the ethylene gas. That is to say, when a carbon film is formed, a halogen element such as chlorine (Cl) is exhausted as, for example, HCl, by desorbing H existing in a surface layer. Thus, the desorption of H generates a dangling bond, which contributes to the film formation process.
However, in the case of using the Cl2 gas as the pyrolysis temperature drop gas, it was confirmed that, if the film formation temperature reaches 350 degrees C. or higher, specifically, 400 degrees C. or higher, there is a possibility that a underlying amorphous silicon film is damaged due to etching caused by the Cl2 gas and adhesivity deteriorates to such an extent that a film peeling occurs even in a film thickness of about 10 nm.
That is to say, when the Cl2 gas is used as the pyrolysis temperature drop gas, since Cl has high reactivity, an underlying film may be damaged depending on a material thereof, for example, in the case where the underlying film is formed of silicon in this embodiment. In addition, as illustrated in
In contrast, in the present embodiment, the iodine-containing gas, specifically, an iodine compound, is used as the pyrolysis temperature drop gas. This eliminates damage to the underlying film or the degradation of adhesivity. That is to say, since iodine (I) has reactivity lower than that of Cl, the iodine-containing gas, specifically, the iodine compound gas, causes a milder reaction than a chlorine-containing gas such as Cl2 gas or the like, which causes less damage to the underlying film. Furthermore, as illustrated in
In addition, as described above, since the iodine-containing gas causes the mild reaction, in the case where the Cl2 gas is used as the pyrolysis temperature drop gas, it is possible to form the carbon film without entailing such a problem even at a temperature of 400 degrees C. or higher at which the damage to the underlying silicon film or the degradation of adhesivity is caused. It is therefore possible to widen the range of the film formation temperature to about 600 degrees C. Thus, the present disclosure can be applied to a process in which a wide range of film formation temperature is required.
Furthermore, in the case of using the Cl2 gas as the pyrolysis temperature drop gas, as mentioned above, since Cl easily terminates a dangling bond, Cl is contained in the carbon film at a level of about 15 at %. In contrast, in the case of using the iodine-containing gas as the pyrolysis temperature drop gas, as mentioned above, it is hard to terminate a dangling bond with iodine which is hard to contain in a film with a great atomic weight. Thus, it is possible to lower a concentration of iodine in the film up to an impurity level. It is therefore possible to form a highly purified carbon film with less halogen elements as impurities.
As described above, in view of reactivity or the like, the iodine compound, specifically, the organic iodine compound may be used as the iodine-containing gas. On the other hand, in view of minimizing impurity, hydrocarbon iodide, for example, ethyl iodide (C2H5I) may be used as the iodine-containing gas.
The desirable conditions in forming the carbon film at step 3 are as follows.
Examples of actual manufacturing conditions are as follows:
Next, experimental examples will be described.
Experimental example 1 was performed to confirm adhesivity of a carbon film with respect to Sample A having a carbon film formed using butadiene (C4H6) as a hydrocarbon-based carbon source gas and using a Cl2 gas as a pyrolysis temperature drop gas, and Sample B having a carbon film formed using butadiene (C4H6) as the hydrocarbon-based carbon source gas and using an ethyl iodide (C2H5I) gas as the pyrolysis temperature drop gas.
For Sample A, as illustrated in
For Sample B, as illustrated in
For these Samples A and B, the adhesivity of the carbon films was confirmed through SEM photographs.
From
Experimental example 2 was performed to measure a film composition ratio and a film density of a carbon film by RBS-HFS with respect to Samples A and B, and Sample C similar to Sample B, except that the film formation temperature was set at 400 degrees C. The results are illustrated in
As illustrated in
For each of Samples B and C, the concentration of iodine in the carbon film was measured by a secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS). The results are illustrated in
While some embodiments of the present disclosure have been described above, the present disclosure is not limited to the aforementioned embodiments but may be differently modified without departing from the spirit of the disclosures.
For example, in the aforementioned embodiments, there has been described an example in which the carbon film is formed using the vertical type batch-type film forming apparatus, but a single wafer-type film forming apparatus may be used or a batch-type film forming apparatus other than the vertical type one may also be used.
Furthermore, in the aforementioned embodiments, there has been described an example in which the semiconductor wafer is used as the workpiece but not limited to the semiconductor wafer. Needless to say, the present disclosure may be applied even to a glass substrate used in a flat panel display (FPD) such as a liquid crystal display or the like or other workpieces such as a ceramic substrate or the like.
According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, it is possible to suppress damage to an underlying film and form a carbon film with good adhesivity, using an iodine-containing gas as a phyrolysis temperature drop gas. Further, it is possible to drastically reduce an amount of halogen contained in a film.
While certain embodiments have been described, these embodiments have been presented by way of example only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the disclosures. Indeed, the embodiments described herein may be embodied in a variety of other forms. Furthermore, various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the embodiments described herein may be made without departing from the spirit of the disclosures. The accompanying claims and their equivalents are intended to cover such forms or modifications as would fall within the scope and spirit of the disclosures.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-103494 | May 2016 | JP | national |
