Study of Factor and Interaction Effects During Programmed Rate Chemical Vapor Deposition of Aluminum

Abstract

ABSTRACTResults from a statistically designed experiment studying the effects of initial substrate temperature (A), precursor pulse time (B), diluent gas flow rate (C), and their interactions on film properties of programmed rate chemical vapor deposited aluminum are presented. Deposition rate, reflectivity, absolute and normalized roughness, and grain orientation were the response variables investigated. A two level, three factor (23) full factorial experimental design was used. Five center cell replicates were used to estimate cell standard deviations. The experiments were conducted using tri-isobutyl aluminum (TIBA) as the precursor in a lowpressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) cold wall reactor. Effects were considered significant at the 95% confidence level. Initial substrate temperature (A) affected deposition rate and reflectivity. Diluent gas flow rate (C) affected deposition rate, normalized roughness and film texture. The precursor pulse time/diluent gas flow rate interaction (BC) affected film reflectivity and absolute surface roughness, while the initial substrate temperature/diluent gas flow rate interaction (AC) affected film texture.