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US 7,622,162 B1Granted
UV treatment of STI films for increasing tensile stress
AssigneeNovellus Systems, Inc.
InventorsBart van Schravendijk, Seon-Mee Cho
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Abstract
Using UV radiation, methods to modify shallow trench isolation (STI) film tensile stress to generate channel strain without adversely impacting the efficiency of the transistor fabrication process are disclosed. Methods involve a two phase process: a deposition phase, wherein silanol groups are formed in the silicon dioxide film, and a bond reconstruction phase, wherein UV radiation removes silanol bonds and induce tensile stress in the silicon dioxide film.
Claims21
A method of forming a silicon dioxide film having +tensile stress, the method comprising:
- (a) providing a substrate on a substrate support in a reaction chamber, the reaction chamber capable of maintaining a high density plasma;
- (b) exposing the substrate to the high density plasma using at least a silicon-containing precursor, an oxygen source, and a hydrogen source while maintaining a substrate temperature of no greater than about 400° C. to thereby form a silicon dioxide film on the substrate, the silicon dioxide film comprising silanol groups;
- and
- (c) exposing the silicon dioxide film to UV radiation remove at least water or —OH groups from the silicon dioxide film, thereby increasing tensile stress in the silicon dioxide film
- wherein the tensile stress of the silicon dioxide film after (c) is about 50 MPa or greater.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.