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Spectroscopic Analysis of Film Stress Mechanism in PECVD Silicon Nitride

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Abstract

We investigated the stoichiometry of silicon nitride film deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). Lowering the NH3/SiH4 gas flow ratio resulted in slightly Si-rich film due to the lack of reactive nitrogen in the plasma. It may reduce the film stress, but the refractive index of Si-rich nitride film can be increased by 50% at its maximum. The aforementioned stress adjustment methods are made practically useful by performing multiple experiments to achieve immediate stress release. It suffers from figures of merit of the PECVD-deposited silicon nitride film. Thin film stress was measured both before and after deposition, and the stoichiometry of deposited film on wafer was measured by Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, while plasma chemistry and its conditions were monitored in real time during the deposition process. The purpose of this study was to correlate the optically measured film stress with the stoichiometry of the deposited film and plasma chemistry. Nitrogen-rich plasma processes tend to have higher tensile stress, and FT-IR measurements are in accordance with the measured mechanical stresses of the wafers.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to SPDRC at Myongji University and TES for technical support and valuable discussions to perform the experiment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electronic Engineering, Myongji University, Yongin, 17058, Korea

    Bo Eun Jang & Sang Jeen Hong

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  1. Bo Eun Jang
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  2. Sang Jeen Hong
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Correspondence to Sang Jeen Hong.

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Jang, B.E., Hong, S.J. Spectroscopic Analysis of Film Stress Mechanism in PECVD Silicon Nitride. Trans. Electr. Electron. Mater. 19, 1–6 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42341-018-0006-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42341-018-0006-z

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