Stress evaluation of radio-frequency-biased plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposited silicon nitride films

Maeda, Masahiko; Ikeda, Koichi

doi:10.1063/1.366618

Cited by 39 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Several PECVD studies have shown that significant compressive stresses can be induced due to bombardment of the film by ions created in the plasma and accelerated across the plasma sheath toward the film surface. 272,273 By controlling the plasma potential and drive frequency, the stress in PECVD SiN:H films can be easily tuned from tensile to compressive. 137 It has similarly been shown that energetic ions from the plasma activated step in PEALD processes can also be utilized to induce compressive stresses in what are typically tensile films when grown by pure thermal ALD processes.…”

Section: -268mentioning

confidence: 99%

Review—Investigation and Review of the Thermal, Mechanical, Electrical, Optical, and Structural Properties of Atomic Layer Deposited High-kDielectrics: Beryllium Oxide, Aluminum Oxide, Hafnium Oxide, and Aluminum Nitride

Gaskins

Hopkins

Merrill

et al. 2017

ECS J. Solid State Sci. Technol.

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Atomic layer deposited (ALD) high-dielectric-constant (high-k) materials have found extensive applications in a variety of electronic, optical, optoelectronic, and photovoltaic devices. While electrical, optical, and interfacial properties have been the primary consideration for such devices, thermal and mechanical properties are becoming an additional key consideration for many new and emerging applications of ALD high-k materials in electromechanical, energy storage, and organic light emitting diode devices. Unfortunately, a clear correspondence between thermal/mechanical and electrical/optical properties in ALD high-k materials has yet to be established, and a detailed comparison to conventional silicon-based dielectrics to facilitate optimal material selection is also lacking. In this regard, we have conducted a comprehensive investigation and review of the thermal, mechanical, electrical, optical, and structural properties for a series of prevalent and emerging ALD high-k materials including aluminum oxide (Al 2 O 3 ), aluminum nitride (AlN), hafnium oxide (HfO 2 ), and beryllium oxide (BeO). For comparison, more established silicon-based dielectrics were also examined, including thermally grown silicon dioxide (SiO 2 ) and plasma-enhanced chemically vapor deposited hydrogenated silicon nitride (SiN:H). We find that in addition to exhibiting high values of dielectric permittivity and electrical resistance that exceed those of SiO 2 and SiN:H, the ALD high-k materials exhibit equally exceptional thermal and mechanical properties with coefficients of thermal expansion ≤ 6 × 10 -6 / • C, thermal conductivites (κ) of 3-15 W/m K, and Young's modulus and hardness values exceeding 200 and 25 GPa, respectively. In many cases, the observed extreme thermal/mechanical properties correlate with the presence of crystallinity in the ALD high-k films. In contrast, some of the electrical and optical properties correlate more strongly with the percentage of ionic vs. covalent bonds present in the high-k film. Overall, the ALD high-k dielectrics investigated concurrently exhibit compelling thermal/mechanical and electrical/optical properties. The drive to reduce gate leakage currents in highly scaled complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) transistors has led to the exploration and development of a wide variety of high-dielectricconstant (high-k) materials to replace silicon dioxide (SiO 2 ) as the insulating gate dielectric material.1-8 Many of these same high-k materials have found additional applications in future non-CMOS logic and memory storage products such as solid-state electrolytes in resistive switching devices, 9,10 tunnel barriers in spin-transport devices, 11 and as a ferroelectric in magnetoelectric devices. While electrical, physical, and thermodynamic properties have clearly been a key consideration in all of the above applications, thermal properties have become an additional important consideration for higk-k dielectrics as aggressive dimensional scaling of devices has created the need to dissipate ...

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Section: -268mentioning

confidence: 99%

Review—Investigation and Review of the Thermal, Mechanical, Electrical, Optical, and Structural Properties of Atomic Layer Deposited High-kDielectrics: Beryllium Oxide, Aluminum Oxide, Hafnium Oxide, and Aluminum Nitride

Gaskins

Hopkins

Merrill

et al. 2017

ECS J. Solid State Sci. Technol.

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“…[208][209][210][211][212][213] However, the reported CTEs for low-k a-SiOC:H ILDs and Cu are substantially larger at 10-20 ppm/…”

Section: -122mentioning

confidence: 96%

Dielectric Barrier, Etch Stop, and Metal Capping Materials for State of the Art and beyond Metal Interconnects

King

2014

ECS J. Solid State Sci. Technol.

133

115

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Over the past decade, the primary focus for improving the performance of nano-electronic metal interconnect structures has been to reduce the impact of resistance-capacitance (RC) delays via utilizing insulating dielectrics with ever lower values of dielectric permittivity. The integration and implementation of such low dielectric constant (i.e. low-k) materials has been fraught with numerous challenges. For intermetal and interlayer (ILD) low-k dielectrics, these challenges have been largely associated to integration with metal interconnect fabrication processes and well documented and reviewed in the literature. Although equally important, less attention has been given to other low-k dielectrics utilized in metal interconnect structures that are commonly referred to as low-k dielectric barriers (DB), etch stops (ES), and/or Cu capping layers (CCL). These materials present numerous challenges as well for integration into metal interconnect fabrication processes. However, they also have more stringent integrated functionality requirements relative to low-k ILD materials that serve only a basic purpose of electrically isolating adjacent metal lines. In this article, we review the integration challenges and associated integrated functionality requirements for low-k DB/ES/CCL materials with a focus on the current status and future direction needed for these materials to facilitate both Moore's law (i.e. More Moore) and More than Moore scaling.

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“…4,10,54,55 Films with tensile stress usually have a high density of defects, such as voids and columnar structures. This is probably the case of the tensile silver and aluminum films prepared by thermal evaporation ͑see Table II͒.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coefficient of thermal expansion and elastic modulus of thin films

Lima

Lacerda

Vilcarromero

et al. 1999

Journal of Applied Physics

138

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The coefficient of thermal expansion ͑CTE͒, biaxial modulus, and stress of some amorphous semiconductors ͑a-Si:H, a-C:H, a-Ge:H, and a-GeC x :H͒ and metallic ͑Ag and Al͒ thin films were studied. The thermal expansion and the biaxial modulus were measured by the thermally induced bending technique. The stress of the metallic films, deposited by thermal evaporation ͑Ag and Al͒, is tensile, while that of the amorphous films deposited by sputtering ͑a-Si:H, a-Ge:H, and a-GeC x :H͒ and by glow discharge (a-C:H) is compressive. We observed that the coefficient of thermal expansion of the tetrahedral amorphous thin films prepared in this work, as well as that of the films reported in literature, depend on the network strain. The CTE of tensile films is smaller than that of their corresponding crystalline semiconductors, but it is higher for compressive films. On the other hand, we found out that the elastic biaxial modulus of the amorphous and metallic films is systematically smaller than that of their crystalline counterparts. This behavior stands for other films reported in the literature that were prepared by different techniques and deposition conditions. These differences were attributed to the reduction of the coordination number and to the presence of defects, such as voids and dangling bonds, in amorphous films. On the other hand, columnar structure and microcrystallinity account for the reduced elasticity of the metallic films.

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Stress evaluation of radio-frequency-biased plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposited silicon nitride films

Cited by 39 publications

References 18 publications

Review—Investigation and Review of the Thermal, Mechanical, Electrical, Optical, and Structural Properties of Atomic Layer Deposited High-kDielectrics: Beryllium Oxide, Aluminum Oxide, Hafnium Oxide, and Aluminum Nitride

Review—Investigation and Review of the Thermal, Mechanical, Electrical, Optical, and Structural Properties of Atomic Layer Deposited High-kDielectrics: Beryllium Oxide, Aluminum Oxide, Hafnium Oxide, and Aluminum Nitride

Dielectric Barrier, Etch Stop, and Metal Capping Materials for State of the Art and beyond Metal Interconnects

Coefficient of thermal expansion and elastic modulus of thin films

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