Characteristics of Silicon Oxide Thin Film Deposited via Remote Plasma Atomic Layer Deposition

Abstract

Recently, high-quality SiO2 thin films deposited at low temperatures have become popular because of their excellent dielectric properties. In this study, SiO2 thin films were deposited through remote plasma atomic layer deposition (RPALD) using a bis(tertiary-butylamino)silane (BTBAS) precursor and O2 plasma. The growth rate was saturated at 1.0 Å/cycle between 300 °C and 400 °C and was maintained throughout the process. The SiO2 thin film was oxygen rich according to Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), and the Si–O–Si bond structure was analyzed by measuring the binding energy differences using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The leakage current density was 2.0 × 10–7 A cm−2 at 2 MV cm−1. As the deposition temperature increased from 300 °C to 400 °C, the breakdown voltage increased from 8.5 MV cm−1 to 10.5 MV cm−1 and the dielectric constant decreased from 3.85 to 3.72, which is slightly lower than for typical SiO2.