SILICON NITRIDE FILMS FOR SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE APPLICATIONS

摘要

The embodiments herein relate to plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition methods and apparatus for depositing silicon nitride on a substrate. The disclosed methods provide silicon nitride films having wet etch rates (e.g., in dilute hydrofluoric acid or hot phosphoric acid) suitable for certain applications such as vertical memory devices. Further, the methods provide silicon nitride films having defined levels of internal stress suitable for the applications in question. These silicon nitride film characteristics can be set or tuned by controlling, for example, the composition and flow rates of the precursors, as well as the RF power supplied to the plasma and the pressure in the reactor. In certain embodiments, a boron-containing precursor is added.