Hollow Cathode Plasma (HCP) Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition of Silicon Nitride (SiN_x) Thin Films Using Pentachlorodisilane (PCDS)

Silicon nitride (SiNx) films have drawn great attention due to the wide range of applications such as passivation layer, gate dielectric, spacer, charge trap layer, and diffusion barrier [1]. Conventionally used LPCVD and PECVD for SiNx deposition have limitations in terms of conformal deposition and thickness scalability. Since plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) is expected to overcome these shortcomings, several research groups have reported SiNx film deposition. A number of studies on PEALD SiNx process using various chlorine-containing silicon precursors have been reported due to their ease in synthesis as well as good thermal stability [2]. Recently, PEALD SiNx film using a novel chlorosilane precursor, pentachlorodisilane (PCDS, HSi2Cl5) with NH3/N2 plasma was reported [3]. Under the NH3/N2 plasma condition, PCDS enhanced the growth rate (approximately > 20 %) compared to the hexachlorodisilane (HCDS, Si2Cl6), but still showed relatively poor wet etch resistance. Inspired the film characteristics, we propose to explore the feasibility of improving the wet etch resistance of PEALD-SiNx films using the different gas mixture for plasma. It has been reported that the wet etch rate of SiNx films has a linear relationship with the hydrogen concentration in the films [1]. Compared to NH3/N2 plasma, N2-H2 (forming gas) plasma improves the wet etch rate possibly due to less N-H and H-N-H bonds in the SiNx films [2]. Herein, PEALD SiNx films using PCDS as Si precursor and N2-H2 (10 % forming gas) plasma as the reactant were evaluated. The combination with PCDS and N2-H2 plasma showed a relatively lower (approximately < 10 %) growth rate than NH3/N2 plasma under a range of process temperatures (270−300 °C) whereas the wet etch resistance to HF acid was improved (> 1.5 nm/min, 500:1 HF). Studying these results, we suggest the effect of hydrogen on film properties such as growth rate, film composition, and wet etch resistance. [1] H.S. Kim, X. Meng, S.J. Kim, A.T. Lucero, L. Cheng, Y.C. Byun, J.S. Lee, S.M. Hwang, A.L.N. Kondusamy, R.M. Wallace, G. Goodman, A.S. Wan, M. Telgenhoff, B.K. Hwang, and J. Kim, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 10, 44825 (2018). [2] X. Meng, Y.C. Byun, H.S. Kim, J.S. Lee, A.T. Lucero, L. Cheng, and J. Kim, Materials 9, 1007 (2016). [3] X. Meng, H.S. Kim, A.T. Lucero, S.M. Hwang, J.S. Lee, Y.C. Byun, J. Kim, B.K. Hwang, X. Zhou, J. Young, and M. Telgenhoff, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 10, 14116 (2018). Figure 1