Claims
- 1. A method for treating a carbon-doped silicon oxide layer over a substrate disposed in a substrate processing chamber, the method comprising:flowing a process gas comprising ozone and an organosilane into the substrate processing chamber; heating the substrate to a temperature of less than about 250° C. to form a carbon-doped silicon oxide layer over the substrate; curing the carbon-doped silicon oxide layer after it is formed over the substrate; and densifying the carbon-doped silicon oxide layer after said curing by subjecting the carbon-doped silicon oxide layer to a plasma.
- 2. The method of claim 1 wherein said plasma contains helium (He), nitrogen (N2), or Argon (Ar).
- 3. The method of claim 2 wherein said plasma is an N2 plasma.
- 4. The method of claim 3 wherein the substrate is exposed to said N2 plasma for between 1 and 10 minutes.
- 5. The method of claim 4 wherein said N2 plasma is sustained by radio frequency (RF) energy.
- 6. The method of claim 5 wherein said RF energy is delivered at a power of between 500 and 900 watts.
- 7. The method of claim 5 wherein said RF energy is delivered at a frequency of between 100 kilohertz and 100 megahertz.
- 8. The method of claim 5 wherein said N2 plasma has a pressure of between about 1.2 and 4 torr.
- 9. The method of claim 1 wherein the organosilane precursor is selected from the group of methylsilane, dimethylsilane, trimethylsilane, tetramethylsilane and phenylmethylsilane.
- 10. The method of claim 1 wherein the dielectric constant of said carbon-doped silicon oxide layer is less than or equal to 3.0.
- 11. The method of claim 1 wherein densifying includes heating the substrate.
- 12. The method of claim 11 wherein the substrated to a temperature of between approximately 350° C. and 450° C. during the densifying.
- 13. The method of claim 1 wherein said plasma is generated in the processing chamber.
- 14. The method of claim 1 wherein said plasma is generated remote from the processing chamber and then flowed to the processing chamber.
- 15. The method of claim 1 wherein the carbon-doped silicon oxide layer is formed over the substrate as a result of a thermal process.
Priority Claims (1)
Number |
Date |
Country |
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99402072 |
Aug 1999 |
EP |
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CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is related to concurrently filed U.S. application Ser. No. 09/625,911, entitled “THERMAL CVD PROCESS FOR DEPOSITING A LOW DIELECTRIC CONSTANT CARBON-DOPED SILICON OXIDE FILM,” having Li-Qun Xia, Fabrice Geiger, Frederic Gaillard, Ellie Yieh and Tian Lim as coinventors; and to concurrently filed U.S. application Ser. No. 091633,196, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS TO ENHANCE PROPERTIES OF Si—O—C LOW K FILMS,” having Li-Qun Xia, Frederic Gaillard, Ellie Yieh and Tian H. Lim as coinventors; and to concurrently filed U.S. application Ser. No. 09/632,669 entitled “POST-DEPOSITION TREATMENT TO ENHANCE PROPERTIES OF Si—O—C LOW K FILMS,” having Li-Qun Xia, Frederic Gaillard, ELlie Yieh and Tian Lim as coinventors and to concurrently filed U.S. application Ser. No. 09/633,798, entitled “LID COOLING MECHANISM FOR OPTIMIZED DEPOSITION OF LOW-K DIELECTRIC USING TRI METHYLSILANE-OZONE BASED PROCESSES,” having Hirnmsu Pokhama, Li-Qun Xia and Tian-Hoe Lim as coinventors. Each of the Ser. Nos. 09/625,911, 09/633,196, 09/632,669 and 09/633,798 applications listed above are assigned to Applied Materials, Inc., the assignee of the present invention and each of the above-referenced applications are hereby incorporated by reference.
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