Effect of Post Plasma Treatment on Reliability and Dielectric Properties of SiOF Films Deposited by ECRCVD With SiF4 and O2

Abstract

AbstractThe effect of post plasma treatment on dielectric properties and reliability of fluorine doped silicon oxide (SiOF) films were investigated by measuring their C-V and I-V characteristics, XPS, AFM, and AES. The post plasma treatment of SiOF films was carried out in-situ at 300 °C in the deposition chamber. In this research, when the post plasma treatment time increased, we obtained the following results: (1) The etch rate of SiOF films decreased from 80Å/sec to 10Å/sec. (2) Surface roughness of the plasma treated SiOF films was increased due to the ion bombardment effect of the plasma. (3) The refractive index and relative dielectric constant increased from 1.391 to 1.461 and 3.14 to 3.9, respectively, due to the changes of surface chemistry by the post plasma treatment. (4) The leakage current density of SiOF films prepared by ECRCVD using SiF4 and O2 was less than 1 × 10−9A/cm2. (5) The breakdown field strength increased from 3.5 MV/cm to 8 MV/cm. (6) The thermal stability of the Cu/TiN/SiOF/Si system remained stable up to 600 °C.