SILICON DIOXIDE DEPOSITION BY ATMOSPHERIC-PRESSURE AND LOW-TEMPERATURE CVD USING TEOS AND OZONE

We report characteristics of the film deposited by an atmospheric pressure and low-temperature CVD process using TEOS and ozone. Nondoped silicon oxide was deposited on thermally grown oxide, silicon, and aluminum steps. The film surface was very smooth even on aluminum lines and step coverage of the films changed from isotropic to flow shape with ozone concentration increase. This is one of the largest advantages of this CVD technology and is promising for advanced VLSI device fabrication. The film has tensile stress of less than 4 x 109 dyn/cm2, typically 1.5 x 109 dyn/cm2, low enough to fabricate VLSI devices. Film shrinkage was 5% in the film deposited at the higher ozone concentration when annealed at 950°C, which was comparable to that of the conventionally deposited films. The largest thickness without any cracks varied depending on deposition conditions. A thickness of 2 μm without cracks was obtained at 400°C and 0.1μm/min deposition rate with an ozone concentration of 4.8%. Particle generation was very low and the number of particles of more than 0.3 μm were less than 20 on a 6 in. diam wafer. copyright. © 1990, The Electrochemical Society, Inc. All rights reserved.