Hock Key Moon

Comparative study of global warming effects during silicon nitride etching using C3F6O/O2 and C3F6/O2 gas mixtures

C3F6 and C3F6 gases were investigated as replacement gases for SF6 used in display industry due to their low global warming potential and short lifetime. In the C3F6/O2 and C3F6/O2 capacitively coupled plasmas, Si3N4 etch conditions were varied by controlling process parameters. The global warming effects were quantified as million metric ton carbon equivalents (MMTCEs) obtained from the volumetric emission of by-product and etch gases. A lower MMTCE value and higher etch rate process with combination of high and low source frequencies, fHF (27.12 MHz)/fLF (2 MHz), were observed for the C3F6/O2 chemistry than for the C3F6/O2 chemistry.

Cu-Al alloy formation by thermal annealing of Cu/Al multilayer films deposited by cyclic metal organic chemical vapor deposition

One of the most important issues in future Cu-based interconnects is to suppress the resistivity increase in the Cu interconnect line while decreasing the line width below 30 nm. For the purpose of mitigating the resistivity increase in the nanoscale Cu line, alloying Cu with traces of other elements is investigated. The formation of a Cu alloy layer using chemical vapor deposition or electroplating has been rarely studied because of the difficulty in forming Cu alloys with elements such as Al. In this work, Cu-Al alloy films were successfully formed after thermal annealing of Cu/Al multilayers deposited by cyclic metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (C-MOCVD). After the C-MOCVD of Cu/Al multilayers without gas phase reaction between the Cu and Al precursors in the reactor, thermal annealing was used to form Cu-Al alloy films with a small Al content fraction. The resistivity of the alloy films was dependent on the Al precursor delivery time and was lower than that of the aluminum-free Cu film. No presence of intermetallic compounds were detected in the alloy films by X-ray diffraction measurements and transmission electron spectroscopy.