High Density Plasma Chemical Vapor Deposition of Diamond-Like Carbon Films

Microelectronics Journal 34 (2003) 627–629
www.elsevier.com/locate/mejo
High density plasma chemical vapor deposition of diamond-like

carbon films
A.P. Mousinhoa,*, R.D. Mansanoa, M. Massib, L.S. Zambomc
a
Laboratório de Sistemas Integráveis da Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo, Av. Prof. Luciano Gualberto, 153,
trav.3 CEP 05508-900 São Paulo, SP, Brazil
b
LPP—Depto de Fı́sica, ITA, CTA, 12228-900 São José dos Campos, SP, Brazil
c
CEETEPS—Faculdade de Tecnologia de São Paulo, MPCE, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
Abstract
This work was based on the studies of the influence of the plasma process on the characteristics of diamond-like carbon (DLC) films
deposited by high density plasma chemical vapor deposition (HDP-CVD). DLC is a material that shows several good characteristics like high
electrical resistivity, lower dielectric constant, high breakdown field, lower stress, high density, and hardness and chemical inertness. This
material is important actually in mechanic, optic, and chemistry and mainly in microelectronic areas. For microelectronic process the best
results were obtained by plasma of pure methane: low dielectric constant (1.7) and high resistivity 5 £ 1013 V cm.
q 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Micromachine; Tridimentional structures; Polymer micromachine
1. Introduction interesting for inter metal dielectric layers in multi-layer

metal Integrated Circuits [6]. For microelectronic purposes,
Hydrogenated carbon films have several applications in these films are usually obtained by HDP-CVD techniques
different industrial areas, because of their high density, using different hydrogen sources, such as H2 and CH4 [2,3,
hardness, chemical inertness, smoothness, etc [1,2]. These 7], and by reactive sputtering of carbon, adding one of these
films can be deposited by several techniques, such as gases to Ar [2,8].
chemical vapor deposition (CVD), mass selected ion beam
systems, laser ablation and sputtering [3] and now by HDP-
CVD (high density plasma chemical vapor deposition). The 2. Experimental
last techniques have the advantage that the deposition
occurs at low temperatures (less than 100 8C) and therefore
The films were produced in a HDP-CVD system. This
the thermal budgets for integrated circuits will not be
system uses a new conception on plasma generation. In this
affected. Another consequence is that all types of substrates
case its use a planar coil coupled in a RF system for
can be used (e.g. polycarbonates) upon which these films
plasma generation and use a electrostatic shield for plasma
may be deposited. The film characteristics depend on
densification, in this mode is obtained high density
several different deposition process parameters, such as the
plasmas, for the ion acceleration its using a other RF system
gas composition and pressure, the substrate temperature, the
on planar configuration. The substrate temperature was not
energy of the impinging ions etc [2]. The presence of
controlled, but measured by a type K thermocouple, which
hydrogen in the gas phase promotes the formation of sp3 C
indicated that the temperature never exceeded 90 8C.
structures [4]; sp3 rich hydrogenated carbon films have
Two types of wafers were used: traditional three inch
higher electrical resistivities and higher breakdown voltage
diameter, 280 mm thick, p-type, (100), test quality silicon
[5]. An extra advantage of DLC films is their relatively
wafers with resistivities in the range of 10– 20 V cm, and
low dielectric constant [1], what makes them extremely
3 in. diameter, 400 mm thick, double side polished, p-type,
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ 55-11-30915660; fax: þ 55-11- prime quality wafers with a resistivity of 5 V cm. The high
30915665. quality wafers are used for FTIR measurements, the lower
E-mail address: [email protected] (A.P. Mousinho). quality wafers for the other tests. All were submitted to
0026-2692/03/$ - see front matter q 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0026-2692(03)00065-X
628 A.P. Mousinho et al. / Microelectronics Journal 34 (2003) 627–629
Fig. 3. Ratios of the sum of the areas of the sp3 CHx peaks/area of the sp2
Fig. 1. Deposition rate of DLC films in function of the process pressure and CH peak, as a function of pressure process and RF power.
RF power.
a Piranha clean, followed by a diluted HF dip, before film from 1 min to 1 h and the deposition rate of the investigated
deposition. processes remained constant.
The film thickness was measured with a Dektak 3030 Fig. 2 shows a typical DLC FTIR spectrum. In this
step height meter and a Rudolph AUTOEl-NIR3 ellips- spectrum the principal peaks are the CH and CO blends. For
ometer. The chemical composition was measured by a Bio- this analyze using the 2700 – 3100 region.
RAD FTS 40 Fourier Transform InfraRed (FTIR) The Bessel deconvolution fit of the film spectra shows
spectrometer. the following peaks: sp3 CH3 (2875 cm21), sp3 CH2
For C – V and I–V measurements, electrical contacts (2920 cm 21), sp3 CH 3 (2960 cm 21 ) and sp2 CH 3
were deposited at the front side of the wafer, by aluminum (1635 cm21) [1]. FTIR spectra obtained from the different
evaporation through a mechanical mask in order to obtain samples and the area of the sp2 CH peak was compared with
300 nm thick, 1 mm-diameter cylinders. At the backside of the sum of the areas of the three-sp3 peaks. The influence of
the wafer, a 500 nm thick aluminum film was evaporated. the pressure and RF power on the ratios of the sum of the
The dielectric constant was determined with a HP 4280 high areas of the three sp3 peaks to the area of the sp2 CH peak, is
frequency C-V meter and the electrical conductivity with a shown in Fig. 3: with increase in RF power, the ratio of the
HP 4140A picoamperemeter. sp3 peak areas to the sp2 peak area, increases and decrease
with the pressure process. This indicates that the high power
or high-energy ions promotes very strongly the formation of
3. Results sp3 type carbon bond.
Raman spectra of the films were obtained and fitted into
Fig. 1 shows the deposition rate of the DLC films as a two Gaussian lines to analyze the shape, frequency, position
function of process pressure and RF power. and area of the D and G bands [1].
The deposition rate increased substantially from 2 to The dielectric constant was also determined as a
18 nm/min, as the RF power increase. In function of the function of plasma parameters and the result is shown in
pressure process, the deposition rate increased more slowly Fig. 4. This figure shows that the dielectric constant
t: Using a CH4 rich process, a 1 mm thick film can be decreases with power and pressure increasing, this
deposited in less than 30 min. The process time was varied comportment is the same of the ratio of sp3 (CH)
Fig. 4. Dielectric constant ðkÞ as a function of the RF power and pressure

Fig. 2. Typical spectrum for DLC film deposited by HDPCVD. process.
A.P. Mousinho et al. / Microelectronics Journal 34 (2003) 627–629 629
Table 1 4. Conclusions
Electric resistivity and breakdown electric field of the films as a function of
RF power and pressure process
The film deposited with high-density plasma shows good
RF power (W) 5 mTorr 10 mTorr 15 mTorr characteristics for several applications. These films show
better qualities by sp2/sp3 ratio in range of 0.02. For
GV cm MV/cm GV cm MV/cm GV cm MV/cm microelectronic process the best results were obtained by
plasma of pure methane: low dielectric constant (1.7) and
50 0.5 6.2 0.5 6.7 3 7.2
100 1 6.1 2 6.6 10 6.9 high resistivity 5 £ 1013 V cm.
125 2 6.45 45 6.6 43 6.9
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Dra. Nélia F. Leite of

hybridization (Fig. 3). This is an indicative on the strong LAS-INPE for the use of the Raman system, tec. Nelson
relationship inter hybridization and electrical character- Ordonez, tec. Alexandre M. Camponucci for technical
istics of the DLC films. input and support, and FAPESP, CNPq for financial
Table 1 shows the electric resistivity (V cm) and support.
breakdown electric field (MV/cm) of the films. The electric
resistivity behaves in a similar way as the sp3/sp2 ratio:
when the pressure and the power are increased, the References
resistivity increases compatible with the much higher sp3
type carbon than sp2 type carbon concentration of these [1] A. Grill, Diamond Relat. Mater. 8 (1999) 428.
films. Because of the higher DLC content in the deposited [2] M Madov, Fundamentals of Microfabrication pp.275–323 1997.
[3] Y. Lifshitz, Diamond Relat. Mater. 5 (1996) 388.
films, their resistivity and the breakdown electrical field are [4] J. Robertson, Amorphous carbon, Adv. Phys. 35 (1986) 317.
much higher. [5] A. Grill, B.S. Meyerson, Synthetic diamond: emerging CVD science
The FTIR, resistivity and breakdown field characteriz- and technnology, Wiley, New York, 1994, pp. 91 –140.
ations of the deposited films indicate that the films deposited [6] A.P. Mousinho, R.D. Mansano, A.C. Seabra, Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst.,
with plasmas of high energy, contain much more diamond 375 (2002) 167 –172.
[7] A.C.S. Arruda, A.P. Mousinho, R.D. Mansano, R. Raus, S.L. Hanamoto,
like carbon (DLC) structures than the films which were M.I. Felisberti, Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst., 374 (2002) 397–402.
deposited by pure chemical plasmas, which are primarily of [8] M. Massi, R.D. Mansano, H.S. Maciel, C. Otani, P. Verdonck, l.N.B.N.
the graphite type carbon. Nishioka, Thin Solid Films 343 –344 (1999) 378.

High Density Plasma Chemical Vapor Deposition of Diamond-Like Carbon Films

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

High Density Plasma Chemical Vapor Deposition of Diamond-Like Carbon Films

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

High Density Plasma Chemical Vapor Deposition of Diamond-Like Carbon Films

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Microelectronics Journal 34 (2003) 627–629

High density plasma chemical vapor deposition of diamond-like

1. Introduction interesting for inter metal dielectric layers in multi-layer

Fig. 4. Dielectric constant ðkÞ as a function of the RF power and pressure

The authors would like to thank Dra. Nélia F. Leite of

You might also like