Titanium carbonate films for use in semiconductor processing

#The field of the present invention involves the formation of titanium carbonate films that exhibit improved hydrolytic stability and photosensitivity. Such films are used in semiconductor processing.

#The semiconductor and packaging industries, among others, utilize conventional processes to form thin metal and metal oxide films in their products. Examples of such processes include evaporation, sputter deposition or sputtering, chemical vapor deposition (“CVD”) and thermal oxidation. Evaporation is a process whereby a material to be deposited is heated near the substrate on which deposition is desired. Normally conducted under vacuum conditions, the material to be deposited volatilizes and subsequently condenses on the substrate, resulting in a blanket, or unpatterned, film of the desired material on the substrate. This method has several disadvantages, including the requirement to heat the desired film material to high temperatures and the need for high vacuum conditions. Unless a screen or shadow is employed during evaporation, an unpatterned, blanket film results from this process.

#Sputtering is a technique similar to evaporation, in which the process of transferring the material for deposition into the vapor phase is assisted by bombarding that material with incident atoms of sufficient kinetic energy such that particles of the material are dislodged into the vapor phase and subsequently condense onto the substrate. Sputtering suffers from the same disadvantages as evaporation and, additionally, requires equipment and consumables capable of generating incident particles of sufficient kinetic energy to dislodge particles of the deposition material.

#FIG. 1 is a process flow diagram which identifies process variables by process step.

#FIG. 2 illustrates the basic sequence of steps in an embodiment of the process of the present invention.

#FIG. 3 illustrates a prior art method of fabrication and use of a hard mask used in semiconductor interconnect.

#The present process allows for advantages unavailable with other film deposition and formation methods. As a result, it presents the user with a greater ability to control and manipulate the characteristics of the resulting film to suit the desired application. Therefore, the present process is useful in a broad spectrum of applications.

#This invention provides a process for making a patterned film of desired materials. It is important to recognize that amorphous films are distinct from polycrystalline and crystalline films; further, while amorphous films are distinct from more ordered films, in addition, different amorphous films formed by different film-forming methods are different from one another. Further still, the different properties of different amorphous films formed by different methods can be controlled and engender specific chemical, physical and mechanical properties that are useful in particular applications, for example, as a layer(s) in a semiconductor device and/or in their fabrication. The hard masks formed by the present processes which comprise a step of at least partially converting such amorphous films are preferably patterned and are therefore useful for transferring a pattern to a substrate. Hard masks include but are not limited to implantation masks, etch masks, and pattern transfer layers or masks, e.g., liftoff masks.

#One advantage of an embodiment of the present process is that it yields a patterned electronic material without using a conventional patterning material, i.e., a photoresist, in forming the pattern. Another advantage of the present process is that the amorphous films of precursor material which may be formed may optionally be directly patterned on a substrate, without the use of intermediate patterning materials. As a result of an understanding of process variables, important and unique properties are attainable though this deposition process that are not by the use of other film deposition and formation methods. FIG. 1 provides an overview of the present process by a process flow diagram showing exemplary steps that may be followed to obtain a film of the desired material with optimized properties for a particular application. Many of these steps are fully optional, based on the ultimate application of the film. The present invention is also not limited to these steps and may include other steps, based on the ultimate application of the film. One skilled in the art will know which steps should be included or excluded to achieve the desired result for the particular application.