"TOP-PECVD": a new conformal plasma enhanced CVD technology using TEOS, ozone and pulse-modulated RF plasma

A new CVD technology is proposed to form a conformal SiO/sub 2/ film with superior film quality. This technology is named Tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) Ozone Pulse-wave Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (TOP-PECVD). In the TOP-PECVD technology, TEOS-O/sub 3/ thermal film deposition and O/sub 2/+O/sub 3/ plasma film modification processes are alternately repeated in the same reaction chamber to obtain a thick and homogeneous film. The TOP-PECVD film has high conformality (Side/Top) of over 90%, which is much larger than that for a conventional TEOS-PECVD film (41%). On the other hand, it has less moisture content and smaller leakage current as compared to the conventional TEOS-PECVD film. Carbon content, measured by SIMS, is one hundredth times less than that in the TEOS-PECVD film. Delineation etching patterns show that the TOP-PECVD film has a good homogeneous quality.< >