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US 7,622,400 B1Granted
Method for improving mechanical properties of low dielectric constant materials
AssigneeNovellus Systems, Inc.
InventorsKeith Fox, Easwar Srinivasan, David Mordo, Qingguo Wu
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Abstract
Methods of forming a dielectric layer having a low dielectric constant and high mechanical strength are provided. The methods involve depositing a sub-layer of the dielectric material on a substrate, followed by treating the sub-layer with a plasma. The process of depositing and plasma treating the sub-layers is repeated until a desired thickness has been reached.
Claims28
A method of forming a dielectric layer having a low dielectric constant and high mechanical strength, the method comprising:
- (a) depositing a first sub-layer of the dielectric material on a substrate;
- (b) treating the sub-layer with a plasma in a manner that improves the mechanical strength of the dielectric layer;
- (c) depositing an additional sub-layer of the dielectric material on the previous sub-layer which was plasma treated;
- and
- (d) plasma treating the additional sub-layer in a manner that improves the mechanical strength of the dielectric layer;
- wherein each of (a) through (d) uses a plasma and is performed in a single reaction chamber and wherein the plasma used for operations (a)-(d) is ignited at the beginning of the process defined by operations (a)-(d) and maintained during the entire process.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.