Remote plasma based deposition of SiOC class of films
Provided are methods and systems for providing oxygen doped silicon carbide. A layer of oxygen doped silicon carbide can be provided under process conditions that employ silicon-containing precursors that have one or more silicon-hydrogen bonds and/or silicon-silicon bonds. The silicon-containing precursors also have one or more silicon-oxygen bonds and/or silicon-carbon bonds. One or more radical species in a substantially low energy state can react with the silicon-containing precursors to form the oxygen doped silicon carbide. The one or more radical species can be formed in a remote plasma source.
1. A method of depositing oxygen doped silicon carbide, the method comprising:
providing a substrate;
flowing one or more silicon-containing precursors onto the substrate, wherein each of the one or more silicon-containing precursors have (i) one or more silicon-hydrogen bonds and/or silicon-silicon bonds and (ii) one or more silicon-oxygen bonds and one or more silicon-carbon bonds;
flowing a source gas into a plasma source;
generating, from the source gas, radicals of hydrogen in the plasma source; and
introducing the radicals of hydrogen onto the substrate, wherein at least 90% of the radicals are radicals of hydrogen in the ground state that react with the one or more silicon-containing precursors to form oxygen doped silicon carbide on the substrate under conditions that selectively break one or both of silicon-hydrogen bonds and silicon-silicon bonds but preserve the silicon-oxygen bonds and the silicon-carbon bonds, wherein a ratio of oxygen to carbon concentration in the oxygen doped silicon carbide is between 0.5:1 and 3:1.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the silicon-containing precursors include cyclic siloxanes.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the cyclic siloxanes are selected from the group consisting of TMCTS, OMCTS, and HMCTS.
4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the cyclic siloxanes are caged siloxanes.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the silicon-containing precursors include alkoxy silanes.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the silicon-containing precursors include alkyl silanes.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the radicals are produced from a source gas of hydrogen.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the radicals of hydrogen comprises exposing the source gas to a remote plasma.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the oxygen doped silicon carbide comprises a conformal thin film on the substrate.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the substrate comprises exposed copper, the method further comprising forming the oxygen doped silicon carbide directly over the exposed copper.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the substrate comprises a transistor having a gate electrode, the method further comprising forming the oxygen doped silicon carbide on one or more sidewalls of the gate electrode.
12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the substrate comprises a dielectric having a plurality of pores, the method further comprising sealing the plurality of pores with the oxygen doped silicon carbide.
13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the oxygen doped silicon carbide comprises an ultralow-k dielectric thin film.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the ultralow-k dielectric thin film is porous.