Expanding thermal plasma for low-k dielectrics deposition

As the need for low-k dielectrics in the ULSI technology becomes urgent, the research primarily focuses on the deposition of novel materials with appropriate electrical properties and on the challenges concerning their integration with subsequent processing steps. In this framework we introduce the expanding thermal plasma as a novel remote technique for the deposition of low-k carbon-doped silicon dioxide films from argon/hexamethyldisiloxane/oxygen mixtures. We have obtained k values in the range 2.9-3.4 for films characterized by acceptable mechanical properties (hardness of 1 GPa).