Hollow Cathode Plasma (HCP) Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition of Silicon Nitride (SiN_x) Thin Films Using Pentachlorodisilane (PCDS)

Abstract

In this work, effects of NH3/N2 and N2-H2/Ar plasma gases for the growth of PEALD SiNx films using pentachlorodisilane (PCDS, HSi2Cl5) were studied using a hollow cathode PEALD system. At identical process conditions, the combination of PCDS and N2−H2/Ar plasma showed a relatively lower (approximately < 10 %) growth rate as compared to NH3/N2 plasma under a range of process temperatures (240−300 °C) whereas the wet etch resistance to HF acid was improved (> 1.6 nm/min, 500:1 HF). Using XPS and FTIR analysis, it was identified that N2−H2/Ar gas mixture results in a Si-rich SiNx film with less N−Hx bonds when compared to NH3/N2 mixture, thereby resulting in a decreased wet etch rate.

Low Temperature Thermal Atomic Layer Deposition of Aluminum Nitride Using Hydrazine as the Nitrogen Source

“…The films were deposited using home-built ALD system with a hollow-cathode plasma source (Meaglow Ltd., Thunder Bay, Canada) provision to generate plasma. This ALD system has been used for deposition of various nitride films using thermal ALD or PEALD processes [18][19][20][21]. The stainless-steel chamber wall was heated to~120 • C and the precursor delivery lines were maintained at 90 • C to avoid condensation.…”

Recent Advances in Hollow Cathode Technology for Plasma-Enhanced ALD—Plasma Surface Modifications for Aluminum and Stainless-Steel Cathodes

“…For the testing of the 12" source, a larger purpose-made vacuum chamber was used but only for the electrical measurements. some excellent quality, low oxygen content silicon nitride layers have been grown using a hollow cathode plasma source [22,23,27,31]. The layers, grown at 300 °C, are among the best silicon nitride ever grown at low temperature, with current leakage at 2 MV/cm of 1-2 nA/cm 2 and a breakdown voltage of approximately 12 MV/cm [22].…”

“…[28] SiO 2 (PE-ALD) [7,24,25] β-Ga 2 O 3 (PE-ALD) [38] Silicon nitride (PE-ALD) [22,23,27,31,37,40] Plasma treatment (PE-ALD) [26] Electron treatment (CVD based) [36,39] GaN (CVD based) [42,44,45,55] InN (CVD based) [41][42][43]45,47,48,53,57,58] InGaN (CVD based) [49,51,54,56] InN nanopillars (CVD based) [46,50,52,55] The oxygen contamination overview provided in this introduction is followed by an experimental examination of some effects related to the surface modification of cathode materials by the generated plasma. In particular, we examine changes that have been observed for aluminum and stainless-steel cathodes.…”

Plasma-Enhanced Atomic-Layer Deposition of Nanometer-Thick SiNx Films Using Trichlorodisilane for Etch-Resistant Coatings

“…Silicon nitride (SiN x ) films have been extensively used in surface coating applications in both front and back end-of-the-line processes as a passivation layer, spacer, charge trap layer, or diffusion barrier. − These applications require precise thickness control, high wet etch resistance [e.g., <1 nm/min wet etch rate (WER) in 100:1 diluted hydrofluoric acid (DHF) solution], high bulk film density (e.g., >2.8 g/cm 3 ), and high conformality (e.g., >80%). , SiN x films can be deposited by distinctive techniques like low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD), plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), , and atomic layer deposition (ALD). − Among these deposition methods, plasma-enhanced ALD (PEALD) is expected to overcome the limitations of other deposition methods with respect to conformal deposition and thickness scalability at low-temperature deposition . Several PEALD SiN x processes have been reported, which employed various chlorinated silicon precursors because of the immediate accessibility and good thermal stability of the precursors. ,− …”

“…In a previous work conducted within our group, Meng et al demonstrated the growth of SiN x films using a novel chlorodisilane precursor, pentachlorodisilane (PCDS, Si 2 HCl 5 ), and NH 3 /N 2 plasma. , Under identical process conditions, PCDS gives a higher (>20%) growth rate and a better or at least comparable film quality than hexachlorodisilane (HCDS, Si 2 Cl 6 ). The improvement was attributed to the higher surface reactivity of PCDS because of one hydrogen atom substitution .…”