AbstractFluorinated amorphous carbon films are proposed as low dielectric constant interlayer dielectrics for ULSI circuits. The films are deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition with CH4, CF4 and C2F6 in a parallel-plate rf (13.56 MHz) reactor and a helicon wave reactor. In a parallel-plate reactor, the dielectric constant of the amorphous carbon films deposited with CH4 increases with increase in rf power. Addition of CF4 to CH4 reduces the dielectric constant to 2.1 and raises the deposition rate. However etching reaction occurs with high CF4/CH4 ratios. No film grows with only CF4. XPS measurement reveals that the F atoms are introduced into the amorphous carbon films. Helicon reactor has higher plasma density and is expected to achieve higher deposition rate for productive use. In this reactor, fluorinated amorphous carbon films without hydrogen content can be obtained with only CF4 and C2F6 gases. The growth rate of the films reaches 0.3 μ/min with C2F6 and 0.15 μ/min with CF4 at a source power of 2 kW and a gas flow rate of 100 sccm. With heating up to 300°C in a vacuum for 1 hour, the thickness of the films deposited with C2F6 does not shrink while that of films with CF4 shrinks.
Thermal stability and diffusion characteristics of ultrathin amorphous carbon films grown on crystalline and nitrogenated silicon substrates by filtered cathodic vacuum arc deposition
