Study of porogen removal by atomic hydrogen generated by hot wire chemical vapor deposition for the fabrication of advanced low-k thin films

In order to obtain low-k dielectric films, a subtractive technique, which removes sacrificial porogens from a hydrogenated silicon oxycarbide (SiOC:H) film, has been used successfully by different groups in the past. In this paper, we report on the porogen removal from porogenated SiOC:H films, using a hot wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD) equipment. Molecular hydrogen is dissociated into atomic hydrogen by the hot wires and these atoms may successfully remove the hydrocarbon groups from the porogenated SiOC:H films. The temperature of the HWCVD filaments proved to be a determining factor. By Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray reflectivity (XRR), secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), ellipsometric porosimetry and capacitance-voltage analyses, it was possible to determine that for temperatures higher than 1700 °C, efficient porogen removal occurred. For temperatures higher than 1800 °C, the presence of OH groups was detected. The dielectric constant was the lowest, 2.28, for the samples processed at a filament temperature of 1800 °C, although porosity measurements showed higher porosity for the films deposited at the higher temperatures. XRR and SIMS analyses indicated densification and Tungsten (W) incorporation at the top few nanometers of the films