Porous Low-Dielectric-Constant Material for Semiconductor Microelectronics

To provide high speed, low dynamic power dissipation, and low cross-talk noise for microelectronic circuits, low-dielectric-constant (low-k) materials are required as the inter- and intra-level dielectric (ILD) insulator of the back-end-of-line interconnects. Porous low-k materials have low-polarizability chemical compositions and the introducing porosity in the film. Integration of porous low-k materials into microelectronic circuits, however, poses a number of challenges because the composition and porosity affected the resistance to damage during integration processing and reduced the mechanical strength, thereby degrading the properties and reliability. These issues arising from porous low-k materials are the subject of the present chapter

Study of TMCTS based PECVD carbon-doped low dielectric constant material

Master'sMASTER OF SCIENC

Plasma Damage on Low-k Dielectric Materials

Low dielectric constant (low-k) materials as an interconnecting insulator in integrated circuits are essential for resistance-capacitance (RC) time delay reduction. Plasma technology is widely used for the fabrication of the interconnects, such as dielectric etching, resisting ashing or stripping, barrier metal deposition, and surface treatment. During these processes, low-k dielectric materials may be exposed to the plasma environments. The generated reactive species from the plasma react with the low-k dielectric materials. The reaction involves physical and chemical effects, causing degradations for low-k dielectric materials. This is called “plasma damage” on low-k dielectric materials. Therefore, this chapter is an attempt to provide an overview of plasma damage on the low-k dielectric materials

Effects of Plasma, Temperature and Chemical Reactions on Porous Low Dielectric Films for Semiconductor Devices

Low-dielectric (k) films are one of the performance drivers for continued scaling of integrated circuit devices. These films are needed in microelectronic device interconnects to lower power consumption and minimize cross talk between metal lines that "interconnect" transistors. Low-k materials currently in production for the 45 and 65 nm node are most often organosilicate glasses (OSG) with dielectric constants near 2.8 and nominal porosities of 8-10%. The next generation of low-k materials will require k values 2.6 and below for the 45 nm device generation and beyond. The continuous decrease in device dimensions in ultra large scale integrated (ULSI) circuits have brought about the replacement of the silicon dioxide interconnect dielectric (ILD), which has a dielectric constant (k) of approximately 4.1, with low dielectric constant materials. Lowering the dielectric constant reduces the propagation delays, RC constant (R = the resistance of the metal lines; C = the line capacitance), and metal cross-talk between wires. In order to reduce the RC constants, a number of low-k materials have been studied for use as intermetal dielectrics. The k values of these dielectric materials can be lowered by replacing oxide films with carbon-based polymer films, incorporating hydrocarbon functional groups into oxide films (SiOCH films), or introducing porogens in the film during processing to create pores. However, additional integration issues such as damage to these materials caused by plasma etch, plasma ash, and wet etch processes are yet to be overcome. This dissertation reports the effects of plasma, temperature and chemical reactions on low-k SiOCH films. Plasma ash processes have been known to cause hydrophobic films to lose their hydrophobic methyl groups, rendering them to be hydrophilic. This allows the films to readily absorb moisture. Supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) can be used to transport silylating agents, hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) and diethoxy-dimethlysilane (DEDMS), to functionalize the damaged surfaces of the ash-damaged films. The thermal stability of the low-k films after SC-CO2 treatment is also discussed by performing in-situ heat treatments on the films. UV curing has been shown to reduce the amount of pores while showing only a limited change dielectric constant. This work goes on to describe the effect of UV curing on low-k films after exposing the films to supercritical carbon dioxide (CO2) in combination with tetramethylorthosilicate (TMOS)

Nanofluid Flow in Porous Media

Studies of fluid flow and heat transfer in a porous medium have been the subject of continuous interest for the past several decades because of the wide range of applications, such as geothermal systems, drying technologies, production of thermal isolators, control of pollutant spread in groundwater, insulation of buildings, solar power collectors, design of nuclear reactors, and compact heat exchangers, etc. There are several models for simulating porous media such as the Darcy model, Non-Darcy model, and non-equilibrium model. In porous media applications, such as the environmental impact of buried nuclear heat-generating waste, chemical reactors, thermal energy transport/storage systems, the cooling of electronic devices, etc., a temperature discrepancy between the solid matrix and the saturating fluid has been observed and recognized

Interaction between plasma and low-k dielectric materials

textWith the scaling of devices, integration of porous ultra low-κ dielectric materials into Cu interconnect becomes necessary. Low-k dielectric materials usually consist of a certain number of methyl groups and pores incorporated into a SiO₂ backbone structure to reduce the dielectric constant. They are frequently exposed to various plasmas, since plasma is widely used in VLSI semiconductor fabrication such as etching, ashing and deposition. This dissertation is aimed at exploring the interaction between plasma and low-κ dielectric surfaces. First, plasma assisted the atomic layer deposition (ALD) of Ta-based Cu barriers. Atomic layer deposition of Ta barriers is a self-limited surface reaction, determined by the function groups on the low-κ dielectric surface. But it was found TaCl₅ precursor could not nucleate on the organosilicate low-κ surface that was terminated with methyl groups. Radical NH[subscript x] beam, generated by a microwave plasma source, could activate the surface through exchanging with the methyl groups on the low-κ surface and providing active Si-NH[subscript x] nucleation sites for TaCl₅ precursors. Results from Monte Carlo simulation of the atomic layer deposition demonstrated that substrate chemistry was critical in controlling the film morphology. Second, the properties of low-κ dielectric materials tended to degrade under plasma exposure. In this dissertation, plasma damage of low-κ dielectric surface was investigated from a mechanistic point of view. Both carbon depletion and surface densification were observed on the top surface of damaged low-κ materials while the bulk remained largely uninfluenced. Plasma damage was found to be a complicated phenomenon involving both chemical and physical effects, depending on chemical reactivity and the energy and mass of the plasma species. With a downstream plasma source capable of separating ions from the plasma beam and an in-situ x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) monitoring of the damage process, it was clear that ions played a more important role in the plasma damage process. Increase of dielectric constant after plasma damage was mainly attributed to moisture uptake and was confirmed with quantum chemistry calculation. Annealing was found to be effective in mitigating moisture uptake and thus restoring κ value. Finally, oxygen plasma damage to blanket and patterned low-κ dielectrics was studied in detail. Energetic ions in oxygen plasma contributed much to the loss of film hydrophobicity and dielectric constant through the formation of C=O and Si-OH. Based on results from residual gas analyses (RGA), three possible reaction paths leading to carbon depletion were proposed. This was followed by analytical solution of the evolution of carbon concentration during O₂ plasma damage. O₂ plasma damage to patterned CDO film was studied by TEM/EELS. And the damage behavior was simulated with Monte Carlo method. It was found that the charging potential distribution induced by plasma was important in determining the carbon loss in patterned low-k films. The charging potential distribution was mainly related to the geometry of low-k trench structures. To recover the dielectric constant, several recovery techniques were tried and briefly discussed.Physic

Plasma-Enhanced Vapor Deposition Process for the Modification of Textile Materials

Nowadays many techniques are used for the surface modification of fabrics and textiles. Two fundamental techniques based on vacuum deposition are known as chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and physical vapor deposition (PVD). In this chapter, the effect of plasma-enhanced physical and chemical vapor deposition on textile surfaces is investigated and explained

Introducing dusty plasma particle growth of nanospherical titanium dioxide

In dusty plasma environments, the spontaneous growth of nanoparticles from reactive gases has been extensively studied for over three decades, primarily focusing on hydrocarbons and silicate particles. Here, we introduce the growth of titanium dioxide, a wide band gap semiconductor, as dusty plasma nanoparticles. The resultant particles exhibited a spherical morphology and reached a maximum homogeneous radius of 230 $\pm$ 17 nm after an elapsed time of 70 seconds. The particle grew linearly and the growth displayed a cyclic behavior; that is, upon reaching their maximum radius, the largest particles fell out of the plasma, and a new growth cycle immediately followed. The particles were collected after being grown for different amounts of time and imaged using scanning electron microscopy. Further characterization was carried out using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy to elucidate the chemical composition and crystalline properties of the maximally sized particles. Initially, the as-grown particles after 70 seconds exhibited an amorphous structure. However, annealing treatments at temperatures of 400 $^\circ$C and 800 $^\circ$C induced crystallization, yielding anatase and rutile phases, respectively. Notably, annealing at 600 $^\circ$C resulted in a mixed phase of anatase and rutile. These findings open new avenues for a rapid and controlled growth technique of titanium dioxide as dusty plasma.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Nanomechanical characterization of BD (Low-K) thin films and Cu/BD multilayered stacks

Master'sMASTER OF ENGINEERIN

Couches minces organo-siliciées déposées par PECVD pour la fonctionnalisation de capteurs de gaz

Gas detection is a growing field, both for indoor and outdoor air quality monitoring and for process monitoring. It is indeed particularly critical in the case of volatile organic compounds (VOC) whose impact on public health is proven. Detecting and quantifying their presence becomes a major problem and various solutions are available. One of them, based on the coupling of a resonant beam and a chromatography micro column, appears to be a promising solution. Those two devices combine selectivity and high sensitivity; however, they require functionalization with a sensitive layer. This work focused on SiOCH thin films deposited by PECVD. The gas interaction of the sensitive layers deposited during this work was studied using quartz crystal microbalances (QCM). The obtained measurements were then correlated to a simple model, providing an interpretation of the interaction – for steady-state but also kinetic regime - between the SiOCH and the gas of interest. The first part of the study shows the impact of the chemical composition of those materials on their affinity for toluene, representative for aromatic VOCs. Relying on physico-chemical characterization techniques, the role of various chemical bonds on the solid/gas interaction was investigated. This work shows that a compromise between chemical composition and hydrophobicity has to be reached to preserve SiOCH affinity and temporal response. The influence of porosity was then explored in a second step to further increase the sensitivity of those materials. Original deposition processes were developed in order to propose new porous materials with higher toluene affinity. The limits of the subtractive approach generally used for these PECVD materials (i.e. the porogen approach) were then overcome in terms of porosity and pore size. Concerning gas detection, it is difficult to decorrelate between the impact of chemistry and porosity. Whatever, increasing porosity does not appear to be the only relevant parameter in order to increase these materials affinity at low concentrations.La détection de gaz est un enjeu de plus en plus important, aussi bien dans le domaine de la surveillance de la qualité de l’air -intérieur et extérieur- que dans le suivi de procédés. Cet enjeu est d’autant plus critique dans le cas des composés organiques volatiles (COVs) que leur impact sur la santé publique est avéré. Détecter et quantifier leur présence devient une problématique majeure et différentes solutions existent. L’une d’elles, basée sur le couplage d’une nano-poutre résonnante et d’une micro colonne de chromatographie, s’avère être une solution prometteuse. Ces deux dispositifs alliant sélectivité et grande sensibilité nécessitent cependant une fonctionnalisation à l’aide d’une couche sensible. Ces travaux se sont focalisés sur le développement de matériaux sensibles de la famille des SiOCH déposés en couche mince par dépôt chimique en phase vapeur assisté par plasma (PECVD). L’étude de la réponse sous gaz des différents matériaux synthétisés au cours de cette thèse a été réalisée à l’aide de microbalances à cristal de quartz (QCM). Les mesures obtenues ont ensuite été corrélées à un modèle simple permettant de proposer une interprétation de l’interaction entre les SiOCH et le gaz d’intérêt, à l’équilibre mais aussi en régime dépendant du temps. La première partie de l’étude montre l’impact de la composition chimique de ces matériaux sur leur affinité envers un gaz représentatif des COVs aromatiques : le toluène. En s’appuyant sur des caractérisations physico-chimiques, le rôle de différentes liaisons chimiques ainsi que celui de l’hydrophobie des couches minces sur l’interaction avec le gaz d’intérêt a été analysé. Ces travaux montrent qu’un compromis entre composition chimique et hydrophobie doit être trouvé afin de préserver affinité et temps de réponse des SiOCH. L’étude de l’influence de la porosité sur la sensibilité a ensuite été abordée dans un second temps. Pour cela, des procédés originaux de réalisation de couches minces poreuses ont été développés afin de proposer de nouveaux matériaux poreux et d’accroître leur sensibilité vis-à-vis du toluène. Les limites de l’approche soustractive généralement utilisée pour ce type de matériau (i.e. l’approche porogène) ont pu ainsi être dépassées en termes de porosité et de tailles de pores. Concernant la détection de gaz, il s’avère difficile de décorréler l’impact de la chimie de celui de la porosité. Quoi qu’il en soit, l’augmentation de la porosité ouverte n’apparait pas comme le seul paramètre pertinent pour accroître la sensibilité de ces matériaux aux faibles concentrations