Atomistic Simulation of plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposited SiCOH dielectrics

As microelectronic circuits become smaller, inter-metal insulators in the circuits need to have lower dielectric constant (low-k) for preventing signal delays and cross talks. Theoretical studies on the mechanical and dielectric properties of low-k films of silicon oxycarbide materials (SiOCH) are highly desired. In the paper, we used a new method to investigate SiCOH film´s properties at the atomistic level. By the method, one can construct the atomic structure of SiCOH film using available experimental data. To illustrate the method, we applied the method to construct atomic structure of a typical SiCOH film which is made by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). We confirmed that the method creates reasonable SiCOH structures that can explain experimental results of density, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrum, elastic and dielectric properties. Limitations and problems of the method are discussed