Plural treatment step process for treating dielectric films

A computer readable medium containing program instructions for execution on a computer system, which when executed by the computer system, cause the computer system to perform the steps of:

• disposing said one or more substrates in a process chamber configured to perform plural treatment processes on a dielectric film formed on at least one of said one or more substrates, wherein said dielectric film comprises an initial dielectric constant having a value less than the dielectric constant of SiO2;
• performing a thermal treatment process that includes annealing said one or more substrates in order to remove volatile constituents from said dielectric film on said one or more substrates;
• and
• after performing the thermal treatment process, performing a chemical treatment process on said one or more substrates, comprising:
• introducing a treating compound to said dielectric film on said one or more substrates, and
• heating said one or more substrates, wherein said performing a thermal treatment process comprises increasing the percentage of silanol groups that are replaced with silyl groups on a surface of the dielectric film on the one or more substrates.

A method of treating a dielectric film on one or more substrates, comprising:

• disposing said one or more substrates in a process chamber configured to perform plural treatment processes on a dielectric film formed on at least one of said one or more substrates, wherein said dielectric film comprises an initial dielectric constant having a value less than the dielectric constant of SiO2;
• performing a thermal treatment process that includes annealing said one or more substrates in order to remove volatile constituents from said dielectric film on said one or more substrates;
• and
• after performing the thermal treatment process, performing a chemical treatment process on said one or more substrates, comprising:
• introducing a treating compound to said dielectric film on said one or more substrates, and
• heating said one or more substrates,
• wherein the introducing a treating compound comprises introducing a pent-valent organosilicon compound to the dielectric film on the one or more substrates.