Publication

Abstract : A treatment to reduce the dielectric constant of plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) films is presented. The method involved extracting low molecular weight or CO2 soluble species in the films by post deposition supercritical CO2 pressurization (SCCO2). We observed a decrease in k value of about 10%–14% in a composite film of organosilicate and a-C:F after SCCO2 treatment at 200 °C for 8 h. The composite films were deposited by PECVD using C4F8 and tetravinyltetramethylcyclotetrasiloxane (TVTMCTS) liquid source and H2 carrier gas at room temperature. As-deposited films were also annealed at 200 °C for 8 h in N2 atmosphere to compare the effect of thermal annealing without SCCO2 treatment. The result shows that there is no change in the k of the films after annealing. Thus, SCCO2 extraction is a good method for reducing the dielectric constant of these PECVD composite films. Supercritical CO2 pressurization of the film deposited using TVTMCTS and H2 only without the addition of C4F8 has no effect on the dielectric properties of the film while SCCO2 treatment of a-C:F samples deposited using C4F8 only dissolved the film. Therefore, in the composite film, we expect that CFx species dissolve during SCCO2 treatment while the organosilicate structure is preserved. Analysis of the Fourier-transform infrared spectra of the samples supports this hypothesis based on the decrease in the C–F absorption intensity after SCCO2 treatment.