Hiroyuki Miyazoe, Sebastian U. Engelmann, et al.
JVSTA
The effects of cesium (Cs) ion-implantation on uncured plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor-deposited organosilicate low dielectric constant (low-k) (SiCOH) films have been investigated and compared with an ultraviolet (UV) cured film. The mechanical properties, including the elastic modulus and hardness, of the SiCOH low-k films are improved by up to 30% with Cs implantation, and further up to 52% after annealing at 400 °C in a N2 ambient for 1 h. These improvements are either comparable to or better than the effects of UV-curing. They are attributed to an enhancement of the Si-O-Si network structure. The k-value of the SiCOH films increased slightly after Cs implantation, and increased further after annealing. These increases are attributed to two carbon-loss mechanisms, i.e., the carbon loss due to Si-CH3 bond breakage from implanted Cs ions, and the carbon loss due to oxidation during the annealing. The time-zero dielectric breakdown strength was improved after the Cs implantation and the annealing, and was better than the UV-cured sample. These results indicate that Cs ion implantation could be a supplement to or a substitution for the currently used UV curing method for processing SiCOH low-k films.
Hiroyuki Miyazoe, Sebastian U. Engelmann, et al.
JVSTA
H. Ren, S. Banna, et al.
ECS Transactions
Weiyi Li, Dongfei Pei, et al.
JVSTA
M.T. Nichols, Weiyi Li, et al.
Journal of Applied Physics