Densification of silicon carbide films using remote plasma treatment

摘要

Methods and apparatus for densifying a silicon carbide film using remote plasma processing are provided. The remote plasma deposition operation and the remote plasma processing operation of the silicon carbide film occur alternately to control the film density. A silicon carbide film of a first thickness is deposited and followed by a remote plasma process, followed by a silicon carbide film of a second thickness, followed by another remote plasma process. The remote plasma treatment can flow radicals of the source gas in a substantially low energy state, such as hydrogen radicals in the ground state, toward the silicon carbide film deposited on the substrate. The radicals of the source gas in a substantially low energy state facilitate cross-linking and film densification in the silicon carbide film.