Coating processes – Coating by vapor – gas – or smoke – Carbon or carbide coating
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-26
2002-07-16
Chen, Bret (Department: 1762)
Coating processes
Coating by vapor, gas, or smoke
Carbon or carbide coating
C427S577000, C427S376100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06419985
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a method for producing an insulator film of a fluorine containing carbon film capable of being used as, e.g., an interlayer dielectric film (an interlayer dielectric film) of a semiconductor device.
BACKGROUND ART
In order to achieve the high integration of a semiconductor device, it has been developed to provide devices, such as the scale down of a pattern and the multilayering of a circuit. As one of such devices, there is a technique for multilayering wirings. In order to provide a multilevel interconnection structure, a number n wiring layer and a number (n+1) wiring layer are connected to each other by means of a conductive layer, and a thin-film called an interlayer dielectric film as an interlayer dielectric film is formed in a region other than the conductive layer.
A typical interlayer dielectric film is an SiO
2
film. In recent years, in order to more accelerate the operation of a device, it has been required to reduce the relative dielectric constant of the interlayer dielectric film, and the material of the interlayer dielectric film has been studied. That is, the relative dielectric constant of an SiO
2
film is about 4, and it has been diligently studied to dig up materials having a smaller relative dielectric constant than that of the SiO
2
film. As one of such materials, it has been studied to put an SiOF film having a relative dielectric constant of 3.5 to practical use. The inventor has taken notice of a fluorine containing carbon film (which will be hereinafter referred to as a “CF film”) having a still smaller relative dielectric constant. The CF film is deposited by means of, e.g., the thermal CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) or the plasma CVD.
Therefore, the inventor has intended to provide a CF film having high adhesion and hardness using a plasma system for producing a plasma by the electron cyclotron resonance, using gases containing, e.g., a compound gas of carbon (C) and fluorine (F) and a hydrocarbon gas, as thin film deposition gases, on various process conditions.
However, the CF film has the following problems.
FIG. 8
shows a part of a circuit part formed on a wafer, wherein reference numbers
11
and
12
denote CF films,
13
and
14
denoting conductive layers of W (tungsten),
15
denoting a conductive layer of Al (aluminum),
16
denoting an SiO
2
film, into which P and B have been doped, and
17
denoting an n-type semiconductor region. The W layer
13
is formed at a process temperature of 400 to 450° C. At this time, the CF films
11
and
12
are heated to the process temperature. However, if the CF films are heated to such a high temperature, a part of C—F bonds are cut, so that F gases are mainly desorbed. The F gasses include F, CF, CF
2
gases and so forth.
If the F gases are thus desorbed, there are the following problems.
(a) The metal wirings of aluminum, tungsten and so forth are corroded.
(b) Although the insulator film also has the function of pressing the aluminum wiring to prevent the swell of aluminum, the pressing force of the insulator film on the aluminum wiring is decreased by degassing. As a result, the aluminum wiring swells, so that an electrical defect called electromigration is easily caused.
(c) The insulator film cracks, so that the insulation performance between the wirings gets worse. When the extent of the crack increases, it is not possible to form a wiring layer at the next stage.
(d) If the amount of desorbed F increases, the relative dielectric constant increases.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to eliminate the aforementioned problems and to provide a method capable of producing an insulator film of a CF film, which has strong bonds and high thermo stability, e.g., an interlayer dielectric film of a semiconductor device.
According to the present invention, a method for producing an insulator film, comprises: a thin-film deposition step of decomposing a thin-film deposition gas containing a compound gas of carbon and fluorine to deposit an insulator film of a fluorine containing carbon film on a substrate to be treated; and a heat treatment step of heat treating the fluorine containing carbon film to desorb a part of components of the fluorine containing carbon film.
The thin-film deposition step may activate the thin-film deposition gas to form a plasma to deposit the insulator film of the fluorine containing carbon film on the substrate to be treated, with the plasma. The heat treatment step may be a step of annealing the fluorine containing carbon film in an atmosphere of inert gas. Alternatively, the heat treatment step may be a step of annealing the fluorine containing carbon film in an atmosphere of hydrogen gas. Alternatively, the heat treatment step may be a step of annealing the fluorine containing carbon film in an atmosphere of fluorine gas.
According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a CF film which has high thermo stability and a small amount of desorbed F gases. Therefore, if this CF film is used as, e.g., an interlayer dielectric film of a semiconductor device, it is possible to prevent the corrosion of metal wirings, the swell of aluminum wirings and the production of cracks. Since it is required to scale semiconductor devices down and to accelerate the operation of semiconductor devices and since CF films are noticed as effective insulator films having a small relative dielectric constant, the present invention is effective in the practical use of CF films as insulator films.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5900290 (1999-05-01), Yang et al.
patent: 6005291 (1999-12-01), Koyanagi et al.
patent: 6071797 (2000-06-01), Endo et al.
patent: 6091081 (2000-07-01), Matsubara et al.
patent: 6215087 (2001-04-01), Akahori et al.
patent: 62-128630 (1987-08-01), None
patent: 63-192867 (1988-08-01), None
patent: 6-333916 (1994-12-01), None
patent: 8-236517 (1996-09-01), None
Chen Bret
Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner LLP
Tokyo Electron Ltd.
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