Enhancement of moisture resistance of spin-on low-k HSQ films by hot wire generated atomic hydrogen treatment

Spin on hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) is a material with low dielectric constant (k) and shows potential as intermetal dielectric (IMD) layers for future VLSI circuits. One major challenge in the integration of these films is the moisture uptake with time, which degrades the electrical performance and hence limits their application. In the present work, we show (under accelerated conditions) that the as deposited films absorb moisture significantly which is reflected in the related signatures in the infrared (IR) spectroscopic data. Subsequently there is an increase in the leakage current with a concurrent decrease in the electrical breakdown field. Upon treatment with atomic hydrogen generated by a hot filament (TF = 1900 °C), drastic reduction in the moisture absorption is observed. Also there is almost a 2 orders of magnitude reduction in the leakage current and no indication of any electrical breakdown within the range of applied field.© Elsevie

Resisting oxygen plasma damage in low-k hydrogen silsesquioxane films by hydrogen plasma treatment

Low-density materials, such as the commercially available hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) offer a low dielectric constant. Thus, HSQ with a low value of k (not, vert, similar 2.85) can be spin-coated if the density of Si–H bonding is maintained at a high level and the formation of –OH bonds and absorption of water in the film is minimized. O2 plasma exposure on HSQ film increases leakage current. Also the dielectric constant shows a significant increase after O2 plasma exposure. Another consequence of the O2 plasma exposure is the significant decrease in the contact angle of the HSQ surface, which is not desirable. In this paper, we demonstrate that the surface passivation by hydrogen followed by oxygen plasma treatment of HSQ film for 30 min each leads to a regain of leakage current density and dielectric constant. These results show that the H2 plasma treatment is a promising technique to prevent the damage in the commercially available and highly applicable low-k materials and it also increases the visibility of its use at the 0.1-μm technology. The more hydrophilic nature of the HSQ surface after O2 plasma exposure leads to an increased moisture absorption with a subsequent increase in the dielectric constant.© Elsevie

Gas Phase Chemistry Study During Deposition of a-Si: H and μc-Si: H Films by HWCVD using Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry

Amorphous and microcrystalline silicon films were deposited by HWCVD under different deposition conditions and the gas phase chemistry was studied by in situ Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry. Attempt is made to correlate the properties of the films with the gas phase chemistry during deposition. Interestingly, unlike in PECVD, partial pressure of H2 is higher than any other species during deposition of a-Si:H as well as μc-Si:H. Effect of hydrogen dilution on film properties and on concentration of various chemical species in the gas phase is studied. For low hydrogen dilution [H2]/ [SiH4] from 0 to 1 (where [SiH4] is 10 sccm), all films deposited are amorphous with photoconductivity gain of ∼ 106. During deposition of these amorphous films SiH2 was dominant in gas phase next to [H2]. Interestingly [Si]/[SiH2] ratio increases from 0.4 to 0.5 as dilution increased from 0 to 1, and further to more than 1 for higher hydrogen dilution leading to [Si] dominance. At hydrogen dilution ratio 20, consequently films deposited were microcrystalline

Preliminary results on a-SiC:H based thin film light emitting diode by hot wire CVD

Preliminary results on the first hot wire deposited a-SiC:H based thin film light emitting p–i–n diode having the structure glass/TCO(SnO2:F)/p-a-SiC:H/i-SiC:H/n-a-SiC:H/Al are reported. The paper discusses the results of our attempts to optimize the p-, i- and the n-layers for the desired electrical and optical properties. The optimized p-layers have a bandgap Eg∼2 eV and conductivity a little lower than 10−5 (Ω cm)−1. On the other hand, the optimized n-type a-SiC:H show a conductivity of ∼10−4 (Ω cm)−1 with bandgap 2.06 eV. The highest bandgap of the intrinsic layer is approximately 3.4 eV and shows room temperature photoluminescence peak at approximately 2.21 eV. Thin film p–i–n diodes having i-layers with Eg from 2.7 to 3.4 eV show white light emission at room temperature under forward bias of >5 V. However, the 50-nm thick devices show appreciable reverse leakage current and a low emission intensity, which we attribute to the contamination across the p–i interface since these devices are made in a single chamber with the same filament

Photoluminescent, wide-bandgap a-SiC:H alloy films deposited by Cat- CVD using acetylene

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon/carbon films (a-Si-C:H) are deposited from a silane and acetylene gas mixture by the catalytic chemical vapour deposition (Cat-CVD) technique. It is observed that under certain conditions of total gas pressure and filament temperature (TF), the optical bandgap varies non-linearly with the acetylene to silane (C2H2/SiH4) ratio, having a maximum value of 3.6 eV for a C2H2/SiH4 ratio ≥0.8. However, the deposition rate drastically reduces with an increase in acetylene fraction. FTIR spectra indicate that the total hydrogen content is lower compared to samples deposited by PECVD using similar gas mixtures, with hydrogen being preferentially attached to carbon rather than silicon atoms. The photoluminescence (PL) spectra of these films show PL in the visible spectral region at room temperature. The films with larger bandgap (>2.5 eV) exhibit PL at room temperature, with the emission having peak energy in the range 2.0–2.3 eV.© Elsevie

Nitrogen dilution effects on structural and electrical properties of hot-wire-deposited a-SiN:H films for deep-sub-micron CMOS technologies

Hot-wire chemical vapor-deposited silicon nitride is a potential dielectric material compared to glow-discharge-deposited material due to its lower hydrogen content. In several earlier publications we have demonstrated these aspects of the HWCVD nitride. However, to replace SiO2 with a-SiN:H as the gate dielectric, this material needs further improvement. In this paper we report the results of our efforts to achieve this through nitrogen dilution of the SiH4+NH3 gas mixture used for deposition. To understand the electrical behavior of these nitride films, we characterized the films by high-frequency capacitance–voltage (HFCV) and DC J–E measurements. We attempted to evolve a correlation between the breakdown strength, as determined from the J–E curves, and aspects such as the bond density, etching rate, deposition rate and refractive index. From these correlations, we infer that nitrogen dilution of the source gas mixture has a beneficial effect on the physical and electrical properties of the hot-wire a-SiN:H films. For the highest dilution, we obtained a breakdown voltage of 12 MV cm−1

Highly conducting doped poly-Si deposited by hot wire CVD and its applicability as gate material for CMOS devices

Highly conducting p- and n-type poly-Si:H films were deposited by hot wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD) using SiH4+H2+B2H6 and SiH4+H2+PH3 gas mixtures, respectively. Conductivity of 1.2×102 (Ω cm)−1 for the p-type films and 2.25×102 (Ω cm)−1 for the n-type films was obtained. These are the highest values obtained so far by this technique. The increase in conductivity with substrate temperature (Ts) is attributed to the increase in grain size as reflected in the atomic force microscopy results. Interestingly conductivity of n-type films is higher than the p-type films deposited at the same Ts. To test the applicability of these films as gate contact Al/poly-Si/SiO2/Si capacitor structures with oxide thickness of 4 nm were fabricated on n-type c-Si wafers. Sputter etching of the poly-Si was optimized in order to fabricate the devices. The performance of the HWCVD poly-Si as gate material was monitored using C–V measurements on a MOS test device at different frequencies. The results reveal that as deposited poly-Si without annealing shows low series resistance.© Elsevie