Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vvkck Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T14:16:25.293Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Fluorinated Amorphous Carbon as a Low-Dielectric-Constant Interlayer Dielectric

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2013

Kazuhiko Endo
Get access

Extract

Low-k organic polymers such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) are promising materials for use as interlayer dielectrics (ILD) because their dielectric constants are generally lower than those of inorganic materials. However poor adhesion with Si substrates, poor thermal stability, and production difficulties have hindered their use in microelectronics.

On the other hand, plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) of polymer films (plasma polymerization) has many advantages that help to overcome these problems. Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition uses a glow discharge to create activated species such as radicals and ions from the original monomer, and the polymer films are deposited through various gas-phase and surface reactions of these active species, including ablation of the deposited film. No water is generated during plasma polymerization, and the influence of a solvent can be ignored. Also a layered structure that promotes adhesion can be easily fabricated by changing the source compounds.

Recently the use of fluorinated amorphous carbon thin films (a-C:F) as new low-dielectric-constant interlayer dielectrics has been proposed. These thin films have an amorphous C–C cross-linked structure (including sp3 and sp2 bonded carbon) and have the same C–F bonds found in PTFE. The strong C–F bonds decrease the dielectric constant, and the C–C crosslinked structure maintains the film's thermal stability. The a-C:F film can be deposited from fluorocarbon source materials using PECVD. Typically fluorocarbons such as CF4, C2F6, C4F8, and their hydrogen mixtures are used as source materials. First the a-C:F films for low-k ILD, with a dielectric constant of 2.1, were deposited from CH4 + CF4 mixtures by using parallel-plate PECVD.

Type
Low-Dielectric-Constant Materials
Information
MRS Bulletin , Volume 22 , Issue 10: Low-Dielectric-Constant Materials , October 1997 , pp. 55 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Fering, A.E., Auman, B.C., and Wonchoba, E.R., Macromolecules 26 (1993) p. 2779.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2. Nason, T.C., Moore, J.A., and Lu, T.M., Appl. Phys. Lett. 60 (1992) p. 1866.Google Scholar
3. Hahn, S.F., Martin, S.J., Mckelvy, M.L., and Patrick, D.W., Macromolecules 26 (1993) p. 3870.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4. Yasuda, H., Plasma Polymerization (Academic, New York, 1985).Google Scholar
5. Endo, K. and Tatsumi, T., J. Appl. Phys. 78 (1995) p. 1370.Google Scholar
6. Proc. DUMIC Conf., edited by Takeishi, S., Kudo, H., Shinohara, R., Hoshino, M., Fukuyama, S., Yamaguchi, J., and Yamada, Y. (San Jose, CA, 1996) p. 71.Google Scholar
7. Limb, S.J., Labelle, C.B., Gleason, K.K., Edell, D.J., and Gleason, E.F., Appl. Phys. Lett. 68 (1996) p. 2810.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8. Mountsier, T.W. and Kumar, D., presented at Symposium H, Materials Research Society Meeting, Boston, 1996.Google Scholar
9. Grill, A., Patel, V., Cohen, S.A., Edelstein, D.C., Paraszczak, J.R., and Jahnes, C., Appl. Phys. Lett. 68 (1996) p. 2810.Google Scholar
10. Endo, K. and Tatsumi, T., Appl. Phys. Lett. 68 (1996) p. 2864.Google Scholar
11. Theil, J.A., Mertz, F., Yairi, M., Seaward, K., Ray, G., and Kooi, G., presented at Symposium N, Materials Research Society Meeting, San Francisco, 1997.Google Scholar
12. Lee, W.W., Tyndall, G., and Crowder, M., presented at the Adv. Metall. and Intercon. Sys. for ULSI Appl. Portland, OR, 1995.Google Scholar
13. Robles, S.A., Vasquez, L., Eizenberg, M., and Moghadam, F., presented at Symposium N, Materials Research Society Meeting, San Francisco, 1997.Google Scholar
14. Endo, K., Tatsumi, T., and Matsubara, Y., Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 35 (1996) p. L1348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15. Machida, K. and Oikawa, H., J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 4 (1986) p. 818.Google Scholar
16. Mogami, T., Morimoto, M., Okabayashi, H., and Nagasawa, E., J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 4 (1985) p. 857.Google Scholar
17. d'Agostino, R., Cramarossa, F., and Illuzzi, F., J. Appl. Phys. 61 (1987) p. 2754.Google Scholar
18. Matsubara, Y., Endo, K., Tatsumi, T., Ueno, H., Sugai, K., and Horiuch, T., IEDM Tech. Digest (1996) p. 369.Google Scholar
19. Endo, K., Tatsumi, T., and Matsubara, Y., Appl. Phys. Lett. 70 (1997) p. 1078.Google Scholar
20. Smith, K.L. and Black, K.M., J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 2 (1984) p. 744.CrossRefGoogle Scholar