| 초록 |
Mechanical properties of low dielectric organosilicate films are very important since it should withstand severe processing conditions imposed by Chemical Mechanical Planarization (CMP) and multilevel stacking. With this regard, surface hardness is critical in terms of CMP compatibility of low-k films. In present study, NH3 plasma treatment is applied to organosilicate films to improve micromechanical properties of the film surface by forming a densified surface layer. Improvement of surface hardness is measured using nanoindenter II with continuous stiffness mode (CSM). While the plasma treatment improves surface hardness, the densified surface layer increases the effective dielectric constant of film. To balance these two effects, the thickness of the densified surface layer should be controlled precisely. To reach this goal, we used X-ray reflectivity and Auger electron spectroscopy to determine the depth profile of the films modified by NH3 plasma treatment. The structural and compositional changes of the treated films were also investigated using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy.
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