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Simplified CVD route to near-zero thickness silicon nitride films

; 
Brick, Chad
; 
Goff, Jonathan
; 
Kaloyeros, Alain E.
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Genre
Journal article
Date
2022-06-03
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Chemistry
Subject
Plasma processing
 Dielectric materials
 Atomic layer deposition
 Thin films
 X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
 Chemical vapor deposition
 Optical metrology
 Silicon compounds
 Nitrides
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http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12613/10489
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ArklesEtAl-JournalArticle-2022-06.pdf
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DOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.1116/6.0001820
Abstract
Silicon nitride (SiNx, x ∼ 1) thin films were deposited by chemical vapor deposition on silicon oxide (SiO2) substrates by combining controlled pulses of the precursor 1,3,5-tri(isopropyl)cyclotrisilazane (TICZ, C9H27N3Si3) with a continuous ammonia (NH3) plasma. This plasma-assisted pulsed CVD (PPCVD) process enables the integration of the nanoscale thickness and uniformity control achieved in atomic layer deposition with the efficiency of plasma-enhanced CVD (PE-CVD). TICZ was selected because it is a nonpyrophoric stable liquid with a high vapor pressure (∼133 Pa at 70 °C) and could act as a single source for SiNx with both high Si and N contents. An optimized PPCVD process window was identified consisting of a substrate temperature of 350 °C, a TICZ pulse of ≤0.2 s, and a TICZ purge pulse ≥10 s in a continuous direct NH3 plasma at a NH3 flow rate and a power of 40 SCCM and 3000 W, respectively. The as-deposited films were analyzed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and spectroscopic ellipsometry. XPS analysis confirmed the absence of any C inclusion and demonstrated the existence of the 1:1 Si:N ratio. In situ, real-time ellipsometry measurements indicated that SiNx growth occurred in a typical PE-CVD regime. They also yielded an as-grown SiNx average refractive index of ∼1.75.
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Citation
Barry Arkles, Chad Brick, Jonathan Goff, Alain E. Kaloyeros; Simplified CVD route to near-zero thickness silicon nitride films. J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 1 July 2022; 40 (4): 040601. https://doi.org/10.1116/6.0001820
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American Institute of Physics
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Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B, Vol. 40, Iss. 4
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