Experimental investigations on a plasma assisted in situ restoration process for sidewall damaged ultra low-k dielectrics

With the insertion of evaporated repair liquids into remote plasmas, a novel method to restore plasma damaged ultra low-k (ULK) materials will be introduced. The main advantage of this approach is the enhanced repair efficiency due to the formation of small plasma activated multiple repairing fragments. In this study Octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane (OMCTS) and Bis(dimethylamino)dimethylsilane (DMADMS) were chosen for blanket samples with a k-value of 2.4. Furthermore OMCTS with the addition of oxygen, methane or nitrogen was investigated on patterned ULK trench structures with 62 nm feature size.