Alexey Zotovich

Vacuum ultra-violet emission of CF4 and CF3I containing plasmas and Their effect on low-k materials

CF3I was suggested as a replacement of CF4 gas to decrease the plasma-induced damage (PID) on low-k dielectrics during etching. This proposal is investigated by means of plasma emission measurements and material characterisation. The experiments were conducted in a 300 mm capacitively coupled plasma source. The vacuum ultraviolet (VUV, nm) plasma emission was measured for discharges generated in a pure or a mixture of argon, CF4 and/or CF3I, since VUV plays a major role in PID. However, CF3I containing discharges were found to have a stronger emission than CF4 in the VUV range. Nevertheless, Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy and κ-value measurements showed that there is almost no difference between the damage caused by CF3I or CF4 containing plasmas, while etching in a capacitively coupled plasma source. It is proposed that the damage caused by CF3I with lower F*-density but higher VUV-photon flux is similar to the damage caused by CF4, with higher F*-density but lower VUV-photon flux.

Plasma probe characteristics in low density hydrogen pulsed plasmas

Probe theories are only applicable in the regime where the probe’s perturbation of the plasma can be neglected. However, it is not always possible to know, a priori, that a particular probe theory can be successfully applied, especially in low density plasmas. This is especially difficult in the case of transient, low density plasmas. Here, we applied probe diagnostics in combination with a 2D particle-in-cell model, to an experiment with a pulsed low density hydrogen plasma. The calculations took into account the full chamber geometry, including the plasma probe as an electrode in the chamber. It was found that the simulations reproduce the time evolution of the probe IV characteristics with good accuracy. The disagreement between the simulated and probe measured plasma density is attributed to the limited applicability of probe theory to measurements of low density pulsed plasmas on a similarly short time scale as investigated here. Indeed, in the case studied here, probe measurements would lead to, either a large overestimate, or underestimate of the plasma density, depending on the chosen probe theory. In contrast, the simulations of the plasma evolution and the probe characteristics do not suffer from such strict applicability limits. These studies show that probe theory cannot be justified through probe measurements. However, limiting cases of probe theories can be used to estimate upper and lower bounds on plasma densities. These theories include and neglect orbital motion, respectively, with different collisional terms leading to intermediate estimates.

The chemistry screening for ultra low-k dielectrics plasma etching

Nowadays, some of the important problems in microelectronics technological node scaling down are related to interconnect delay, dynamic power consumption and crosstalk. This compels introduction and integration of new materials with low dielectric permittivity (low-k materials) as insulator in interconnects. One of such materials under consideration for sub 10 nm technology node is a spin-coated organosilicate glass layer with ordered porosity (37-40%) and a k-value of 2.2 (OSG 2.2). High porosity leads to significant challenges during the integration and one of them is a material degradation during the plasma etching. The low-k samples have been etched in a CCP double frequency plasma chamber from TEL. Standard recipes developed for microporous materials with k<2.5 and based on mixture of C4F8 and CF4 with N2, O2 and Ar were found significantly damaging for high-porous ULK materials. The standard etch recipe was compared with oxygen free etch chemistries based on mixture CF4 with CH2F2 and Ar assuming that the presence of oxygen in the first recipe will have significant negative impact in high porous ULK materials. The film damage has been analyzed using FTIR spectroscopy and the k-value has been extracted by capacitance CV-measurements. There was indirectly shown that vacuum ultraviolet photons cause the main damage of low-k, whereas radicals and ions are not so harmful. Trench structures have been etched in low-k film and cross-SEM analysis with and without HF dipping has been performed to reveal patterning capability and visualize the sidewall damage and. The bottom roughness was analyzed by AFM.