Densification of SiO2 films via low-energy electron-beam irradiation

Abstract

Flat and dense SiO2 (the most widely used oxide material in integrated circuit (IC) technology) films could facilitate the rapid scaling down of semiconductor devices. Herein, a DC power of 1-kV was used for the electron-beam irradiation (EBI) of sputtered-SiO2 films on glass. Within 5 min of EBI treatment, at room temperature, the SiO2 films exhibited 10% increase in density, and 25% decrease in surface roughness compared to as-sputtered SiO2. XPS results indicated that 1-kV EBI modulated the density and surface roughness of SiO2 films, without affecting their chemical bonding and atomic ratio. Therefore, low-energy EBI could be used as an efficient method to enhance the characteristics of SiO2 thin films for semiconductor applications.