A comparative study on inductively-coupled plasma high-density plasma, plasma-enhanced, and low pressure chemical vapor deposition silicon nitride films

Silicon nitride films have been deposited using inductively-coupled plasma high-density plasma chemical vapor deposition (HDP CVD), plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), and low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) methods. Characterization and comparison of the three films were performed using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, secondary-ion mass spectroscopy, Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, and hydrogen forward-scattering spectrometry, in addition to wet-etch rate and stress measurement studies. It was found that silicon nitride films deposited using HDP CVD method have several advantages over the silicon nitride films that were deposited using the LPCVD and PECVD methods. The HDP CVD silicon nitride film can be deposited at much lower temperatures (⩽400 °C) than LPCVD silicon nitride, and has substantially less hydrogen (5.5 at. %) than the PECVD film. In addition, the PECVD film contains some oxygen in the film. The wet-etch rate of HDP CVD silicon nitride film is comparable to that of LPCVD film and is significantly less than that of PECVD film in both hot phosphoric acid and buffered HF solutions. The stress of the HDP CVD film is similarly compressive to the PECVD silicon nitride, and not as highly tensile as that of LPCVD silicon nitride.