Superplanarizing spin-on carbon materials
AssigneeBrewer Science Inc.
InventorsXing-Fu Zhong, Runhui Huang, Boyu Zhang
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Planarizing and spin-on-carbon (SOC) compositions that fill vias and/or trenches on a substrate while planarizing the surface in a single thin layer coating process are provided. The compositions can planarize wide ranges of substrates with vias or trenches of from about 20 nm to about 220 nm wide, and up to about 700 nm deep. These extraordinary properties come from the low molecular weight of the polymers used in the materials, thermally-labile protecting groups on the polymers, and a delayed crosslinking reaction.
Claims35
A method of forming a planarizing layer, said method comprising:
- forming an initial layer of a planarizing composition on a substrate surface, said substrate surface comprising openings formed therein, said planarizing composition comprising a compound dispersed or dissolved in a solvent system, said compound comprising protective groups and said initial layer having an initial positive bias;
- and
- heating said initial layer, during which said protective groups begin to be removed from said compound to form a deprotected compound and said deprotected compound crosslinks to form a final planarizing layer, said final planarizing layer being formed without a develop-back step after said heating and having a final bias that is less than said initial bias and less than about 30 nm, wherein:
- the initial bias and the final bias are determined by subtracting the average thickness of the initial layer or of the final planarizing layer, respectively, over a dense region from the average thickness of that same layer over an open area region;
- a dense region is a portion of a substrate that has at least about 50% of its surface area filled with via holes or a 1:1 line to space ratio;
- and
- an open area region is a portion of a substrate that has less than about 20% of its surface area filled with via holes or a 1:5 line to space ratio.
A method of forming a planarizing layer, said method comprising:
- forming an initial layer of a planarizing composition on a substrate surface, said substrate surface comprising openings formed therein, said planarizing composition comprising a polymer dispersed or dissolved in a solvent system, said polymer comprising recurring monomers (I) comprising protective groups and said initial layer having an initial bias;
- and
- heating said initial layer, during which said protective groups begin to be removed from said recurring monomers (I) to form deprotected recurring monomers (I) that crosslink to form a final planarizing layer, said final planarizing layer having a final bias and being formed without a develop-back step after said heating, said final bias being less than said initial bias and less than about 30 nm, wherein:
- the initial bias and the final bias are determined by subtracting the average thickness of the initial layer or of the final planarizing layer, respectively, over a dense region from the average thickness of that same layer over an open area region;
- a dense region is a portion of a substrate that has at least about 50% of its surface area filled with via holes or a 1:1 line to space ratio;
- and
- an open area region is a portion of a substrate that has less than about 20% of its surface area filled with via holes or a 1:5 line to space ratio.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.