Amorphous hydrogenated boron carbide low-k dielectric and method of making the same

1. A method comprising:

positioning the substrate within a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) chamber;

providing an ortho-carborane precursor;

passing a carrier gas through the ortho-carborane precursor, wherein the carrier gas uptakes at least a portion of the ortho-carborane precursor, wherein the carrier gas passed through the ortho-carborane precursor is provided at a partial flow rate of 90 to 97.5% of a total flow rate;

providing methane at a partial flow rate of 2.5 to 10% of the total flow rate;

introducing the methane and the carrier gas passed through the ortho-carborane precursor into the PECVD chamber to form a methane-ortho-carborane mixture;

applying radio frequency power within the PECVD chamber to the carrier gas-methane-ortho-carborane mixture to form one or more plasmas containing one or more species containing at least one of boron, carbon or hydrogen; and

depositing amorphous hydrogenated boron carbide to form a layer of an interconnect device structure of an electronic device, wherein the introduction of methane at a partial flow rate of 2.5 to 10% provides sufficient bond termination and network bridging to establish a carbon level between 10 and 20% by atomic weight, a dielectric constant (k), measured at 1×10 6 Hz, between approximately 2.5 and 2.7, a density between approximately 0.8 and 1.3 g/cm 3 , and a leakage current density (J) between 1×10 −9 and 1×10 −7 A/cm 2 , measured at 2 MV/cm, in the layer of the interconnect device structure;

wherein the temperature of the substrate is maintained between approximately 175 and 275° C. during the depositing of the amorphous hydrogenated boron carbide.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ortho-carborane precursor comprises:

a solid ortho-carborane precursor.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ortho-carborane precursor comprises:

one or more liquid ortho-carborane precursors.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more species containing at least one of boron, carbon or hydrogen comprise:

one or more free radicals containing at least one of boron, carbon or hydrogen.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more species containing at least one of boron, carbon or hydrogen comprise:

one or more ions containing at least one of boron, carbon or hydrogen.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pressure within the PECVD chamber is maintained between approximately 0.2 and 760 Torr.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the layer of the interconnect device structure has a Young's modulus between approximately 7 and 16 GPa.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the layer of the interconnect device structure has a resistivity between 10 13 and 10 14 ohm-cm.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the layer of the interconnect device structure includes, by atomic weight, 20-40% boron, 10-20% carbon and 40-55% hydrogen.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the electronic device comprises:

at least one of a microprocessor device, an application specific integrated circuit device, or a flash memory device.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein a bulk structure of the deposited amorphous hydrogenated boron carbide comprises a plurality of hydrogenated carborane icosahedra.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the bulk structure of the deposited amorphous hydrogenated boron carbide comprises a plurality of pores of a diameter between 0.4 and 0.7 nm.

13. A method of forming an amorphous hydrogenated boron carbide film on a substrate comprising:

positioning the substrate within a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) chamber;

providing an ortho-carborane precursor;

passing a carrier gas through the ortho-carborane precursor, wherein the carrier gas uptakes at least a portion of the ortho-carborane precursor, wherein the carrier gas passed through the ortho-carborane precursor is provided at a partial flow rate of 90 to 97.5% of a total flow rate;

providing methane at a partial flow rate of 2.5 to 10% of the total flow rate;

introducing the methane and the carrier gas passed through the ortho-carborane precursor into the PECVD chamber to form a methane-ortho-carborane mixture;

applying radio frequency power within the PECVD chamber to the carrier gas-methane-ortho-carborane mixture to form one or more plasmas containing one or more species containing at least one of boron, carbon or hydrogen;

depositing amorphous hydrogenated boron carbide to form a first layer of an interconnect device structure of an electronic device, wherein the introduction of methane at a partial flow rate of 2.5 to 10% provides sufficient bond termination and network bridging to establish a carbon level between 10 and 20% by atomic weight, a dielectric constant (k), measured at 1×10 6 Hz, between approximately 2.5 and 2.7, a density between approximately 0.8 and 1.3 g/cm 3 , and a leakage current density (J) between 1×10 −9 to 1×10 −7 A/cm 2 , measured at 2 MV/cm, in the first layer of the interconnect device structure;

depositing amorphous hydrogenated boron carbide to form a dielectric diffusion barrier (DDB) above the first layer of the interconnect device structure of the electronic device, wherein the DDB has a carbon level between 10 and 20% by atomic weight; and

depositing amorphous hydrogenated boron carbide to form an additional layer of the interconnect device structure of the electronic device, wherein the additional layer of the interconnect device structure has a carbon level between approximately 10 and 20% by atomic weight, and a dielectric constant (k), measured at 1×10 6 Hz, between approximately 2.5 and 2.7;

wherein the temperature of the substrate is maintained between approximately 175 and 275° C. during each of the depositions of the amorphous hydrogenated boron carbide.

14. A method comprising:

positioning the substrate within a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) chamber;

providing an ortho-carborane precursor;

passing a carrier gas through the ortho-carborane precursor, wherein the carrier gas uptakes at least a portion of the ortho-carborane precursor, wherein the carrier gas passed through the ortho-carborane precursor is provided at a partial flow rate of 90 to 97.5% of a total flow rate;

providing methane at a partial flow rate of 2.5 to 10% of the total flow rate;

introducing the methane and the carrier gas passed through the ortho-carborane precursor into the PECVD chamber to form a methane-ortho-carborane mixture;

applying radio frequency power within the PECVD chamber to the carrier gas-methane-ortho-carborane mixture to form one or more plasmas containing one or more species containing at least one of boron, carbon or hydrogen;

depositing amorphous hydrogenated boron carbide to form a first layer of an interconnect device structure of an electronic device, wherein the introduction of methane at a partial flow rate of 2.5 to 10% provides sufficient bond termination and network bridging to establish a carbon level between 10 and 20% by atomic weight, a dielectric constant (k), measured at 1×10 6 Hz, between approximately 2.5 and 2.7, a density between approximately 0.8 and 1.3 g/cm 3 , and a leakage current density (J) between 1×10 −9 and 1×10 −7 A/cm 2 , measured at 2 MV/cm, in the first layer of the interconnect device structure;

depositing amorphous hydrogenated boron carbide to form an etch stop layer (ESL) above the first layer of the interconnect device structure in order to protect the first layer of the interconnect device structure from one or more etch processes, wherein the ESL has a carbon level between 10 and 20% by atomic weight;

depositing amorphous hydrogenated boron carbide to form an additional layer of the interconnect device structure, wherein the additional layer of the interconnect device structure has a carbon level between approximately 10 to 20% by atomic weight, and a dielectric constant (k), measured at 1×10 6 Hz, between approximately 2.5 and 2.7; and

forming one or more vias in the additional layer of the interconnect device structure using one or more etch processes,

wherein the temperature of the substrate is maintained between approximately 175 and 275° C. during each of the depositions of the amorphous hydrogenated boron carbide.