Electrical and Mechanical Characteristics of Room Temperature Deposited Silicon Nitride Using Two Inner Parallel Cylindrical Coils Inductively Coupled Plasma Chemical Vapor Deposition

Abstract

For investigating silicon nitride (SiN) thin film deposition process at room temperature without additional substrate heating, we studied inductively coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition with two inner parallel cylindrical coils which can activate the more radicals and charged species in the plasma. We investigated the influence of plasma RF power on the characteristics of room temperature deposited SiN films. Deposition rates, dielectric constant, refractive index, and stress of the films ranged from 4.5 nm/min to 8.3 nm/min, 8.4 to 10, 1.8 to 2.1, and 0.54 to 0.15, respectively. According to the FTIR measurements, the concentration of the Si--H and N--H bonds was decreased as the RF power increased, and the Si--H bonds tended to disappear at RF power over 500 W. This reduction in the hydrogen content was accompanied by the increases in the deposition rate and refractive index. It was confirmed that the breakdown field could be also maximized to 10 MV/cm.