Effect of substrate on the step coverage of plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor deposited tetraethylorthosilicate films

Abstract

Plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor deposition tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) films are extensively used as the interlayer dielectric films in multilevel interconnection processes. When TEOS oxide films were deposited on metal patterns three different substrates, titanium nitride (TiN), aluminum (Al), and oxide (SiO2), were used. This study examines the dependence of these substrates on TEOS step coverage. The deposition rates of TEOS oxide revealed that the SiO2 substrate lead to highest TEOS deposition rate during the initial deposition period of 5 s. Then, the TEOS deposition rate of the substrates was nearly the same. The TiN substrate exhibited the highest sidewall step coverage but the sidewall step coverage of the Al substrate deteriorated due to its granular surface. Additionally, different substrates exhibited different coverage of the bottom step. Moreover, the bottom step coverage exceeded the sidewall coverage for all substrates. (C) 2003 American Vacuum Society.