A plasmaless, photochemical etch process for porous organosilicate glass films

摘要

A plasmaless, photochemical etch process using ultraviolet (UV) light in the presence of NH_3 or O_2 etched porous organosilicate glass films, also called pSiCOH films, in a two-step process. First, a UV/NH_3 or UV/O_2 treatment removed carbon (mostly methyl groups bonded to silicon) from a pSiCOH film by demethylation to a depth determined by the treatment exposure time. Second, aqueous HF was used to selectively remove the demethylated layer of the pSiCOH film leaving the methylated layer below. UV in the presence of inert gas or H_2 did not demethylate the pSiCOH film. The depth of UV/NH_3 demethylation followed diffusion limited kinetics and possible mechanisms of demethylation are presented. Unlike reactive plasma processes, which contain ions that can damage surrounding structures during nanofabrication, the photochemical etch contains no damaging ions. Feasibility of the photochemical etching was shown by comparing it to a plasma-based process to remove the pSiCOH dielectric from between Cu interconnect lines, which is a critical step during air gap fabrication. The findings also expand our understanding of UV photon interactions in pSiCOH films that may contribute to plasma-induced damage to pSiCOH films.