Plasma film-forming method and plasma film-forming apparatus
Disclosed is a plasma film-forming method including: accommodating a workpiece in a chamber; supplying a film-forming gas into the chamber; generating plasma within the chamber; and exciting the film-forming gas by the plasma to form a predetermined film on the workpiece. Helium gas is supplied as a plasma generating gas into the chamber together with the film-forming gas to generate plasma containing the helium gas in the chamber.
1. A plasma film-forming method comprising:
placing a workpiece within a chamber;
supplying a film-forming gas into the chamber;
generating plasma within the chamber; and
exciting the film-forming gas by the plasma to form a predetermined film on the workpiece,
wherein helium gas is supplied as a plasma generating gas into the chamber together with the film-forming gas to generate plasma containing the helium gas in the chamber, and
wherein a partial pressure ratio of the film-forming gas to the helium gas is in a range of 0.15 to 2.5.
2. The plasma film-forming method of claim 1 , wherein the plasma generated within the chamber is microwave plasma.
3. The plasma film-forming method of claim 2 , wherein the microwave plasma is generated by an RLSA (registered trademark) microwave plasma processing apparatus.
4. The plasma film-forming method of claim 1 , wherein the film-forming gas includes a silicon source gas and a nitrogen-containing gas to form a silicon nitride film as the predetermined film.
5. The plasma film-forming method of claim 4 , wherein a processing temperature of the workpiece is in a range of 250° C. to 550° C.
6. The plasma film-forming method of claim 4 , wherein a processing pressure within the chamber is in a range of 6.5 Pa to 100 Pa.
7. The plasma film-forming method of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined film comprises SiN.
8. The plasma film-forming method of claim 1 , wherein the film-forming gas does not comprise Argon.
9. The plasma film-forming method of claim 4 , wherein the silicon source gas comprises SiH 4 , the nitrogen-containing gas comprises N 2 , and the silicon nitride film comprises SiN.
10. The plasma film-forming method of claim 9 , wherein:
the processing temperature of the workpiece is in a range of 250° C. to 550° C.,
the processing pressure of the workpiece is in a range of 6.5 Pa to 100 Pa,
the flow rate of the He gas is in a range of 100 mL/min (sccm) to 400 mL/min,
the flow rate of the SiH 4 gas is in a range of 10 mL/min (sccm) to 200 mL/min,
the flow rate of the N 2 gas is in a range of 10 mL/min (sccm) to 200 mL/min, and
the microwave power density is in a range of 0.01 W/cm 2 to 0.04 W/cm 2 .