DocumentCode :
3217535
Title :
Sumulation of porous low-k dielectric sealing by combined He and NH3 plasma treatment
Author :
Shoeb, J. ; Kushner, M.J.
Author_Institution :
Electr. Eng. Dept., Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA, USA
fYear :
2009
fDate :
1-5 June 2009
Firstpage :
1
Lastpage :
1
Abstract :
Summary form only given. In order to reduce the RC time delay in integrated circuits, porous dielectric materials are used to lower the capacitance. Typical pore sizes are many nm with porosity of up to 50%. The porous low-k materials are typically SiOCH - silicon dioxide with carbon groups, principally CH3, lining the pores. These materials have pores open to the surface which are internally connected and so can offer pathways for reactive species to enter into the porous network. Reaction with the CHX groups can increase the k value of the material. To maintain the low k value of the porous dielectric, sealing of the surface pores is essential. Treatment of the porous material with successive He and NH3 plasmas has been successful in sealing the pores. Ultimately, this sealing process is a tradeoff between densification of the porous material and removing CHX groups, increasing the k-value and sealing the pores. A reaction mechanism has been developed for the sealing of a porous carbon doped silica films (SiOCH) in sequentially applied He and NH3/Ar plasmas. The HPEM (Hybrid Plasma Equipment Module) was employed to obtain the ion energy and angle distributions of reactive fluxes from inductively coupled plasmas. These are used as input to the MCFPM (Monte Carlo Feature Profile Module) with which profiles of the low-k materials after the plasma exposures are predicted. Results will be discussed, including validation with data from the literature, for the densification and sealing of pores as a function of bias voltage and plasma power.
Keywords :
ammonia; argon; densification; dielectric materials; helium; permittivity; plasma materials processing; plasma simulation; porous materials; silicon compounds; surface treatment; HPEM; He; He-NH3 plasma treatment; Hybrid Plasma Equipment Module; MCFPM; Monte Carlo Feature Profile Module; NH3-Ar; SiO2-CH; SiOCH materials; ammonia-argon plasmas; capacitance lowering; carbon group lined porous silicon dioxide; helium plasmas; inductively coupled plasmas; integrated circuit RC time delay reduction; ion energy; material permittivity; organic group removal; porous dielectric materials; porous low k dielectric sealing; porous material densification; porous material plasma treatment; reactive flux angle distributions; surface pore sealing; Capacitance; Carbon dioxide; Delay effects; Dielectric materials; Helium; Organic materials; Plasma density; Plasma materials processing; Sealing materials; Silicon compounds;
fLanguage :
English
Publisher :
ieee
Conference_Titel :
Plasma Science - Abstracts, 2009. ICOPS 2009. IEEE International Conference on
Conference_Location :
San Diego, CA
ISSN :
0730-9244
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-2617-1
Type :
conf
DOI :
10.1109/PLASMA.2009.5227599
Filename :
5227599
Link To Document :
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