Growing low-temperature, high-quality silicon-dioxide films by neutral-beam enhanced atomic-layer deposition

A novel deposition technique, called 'neutral-beam enhanced atomic-layer deposition' (NB-EALD), was successfully used to form a high-quality SiO2 layer by using a precursor (BDEAS) and an oxygen neutral beam at room temperature (30 °C). The results demonstrate a typical ALD process and good thickness control at angstrom level. It was found that the properties of the NBEALD-formed SiO2 film (namely, chemical composition, surface roughness, uniformity, density, and wet etch rate) were almost equivalent to those of thermal SiO2. It is concluded from this result that NBEALD is a promising candidate for high-quality and low-temperature ALD instead of plasma-enhanced ALD and thermal ALD.