Effects of annealing on low dielectric constant carbon doped silicon oxide films

Dielectric materials with lower permittivity (low k) are required for isolation to reduce the interconnect RC delay in deep submicron integrated circuit. In this work, carbon doped silicon oxide SiO(C–H)] films are investigated as a potential low k material. The films were prepared by the radio frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) technique from trimethylsilane (C₃H₁₀Si or 3MS) in an oxygen (O₂) environment. SiO(C–H) films deposited with O₂ and 3MS flow rates of 100 sccm and 600 sccm, respectively have been previously found to produce dielectric constant as low as 2.9. This is attributed to the incorporation of carbon in the form of Si–CH₃ bond, which has lower polarizability compared to the Si–O bonds that were replaced. In this work, these low k films were annealed at 400, 500, 600 and 700 °C in a N₂ atmosphere for 30 min to determine the thermal stability of their properties. The films were characterized in terms of their thickness shrinkage, refractive indices, dielectric constants, infrared absorption, surface morphology and stress upon annealing. For annealing temperatures up to 500 °C, which is beyond the current highest processing temperature for back end of the line structure of around 450 °C, a slight decrease in the refractive indices and dielectric constants of the films are observed. The SiO(C–H) films also remain smooth and exhibit tensile stress with stress level that is within practical acceptable range. The results suggest that the SiO(C–H) films are thermally stable to be applied as low dielectric constant materials for deep submicron integrated circuit.