Analysis of LPCVD process conditions for the deposition of low stress silicon nitride. Part I: preliminary LPCVD experiments

A wide range of process conditions were investigated to optimize conditions for the deposition of low stress silicon nitride films by low-pressure chemical vapor deposition. Experiments carried out in a standard, multi-wafer batch system generated films with an index of refraction ranging from about 2.04 to 2.82 and residual stress ranging from about 700 MPa tensile to –90 MPa compressive. The relationship between residual stress and index of refraction was characterized and results compared to those presented in the technical literature. Increase in the index of refraction beyond about 2.3 by means of increasing the gas flow did not reduce the residual stress appreciably but had a significant detrimental impact on the thickness uniformity and deposition rate. In contrast to results reported by other researchers, uniformity was not observed to increase with increasing DCS/NH3 ratio in this study. Efforts to minimize thickness non-uniformity by suppressing deposition rate at the gas inlet region of the deposition system while increasing deposition rate at the rear were not successful. While increasing the temperature at the exhaust end of the system was intended to improve thickness non-uniformity, significant thickness and index of refraction uniformity was not realized. The reduction in deposition rate and corresponding increase in index of refraction at the exhaust end of the system indicated a variation in gas species from inlet to exhaust of the system. These experimental results revealed that the index of refraction decreased while the deposition rate decreased with increasing partial pressure of DCS. This suggests that the inhomogeneity observed within the repeatability runs is due to ammonia depletion along the length of the load.