Deposition

VLSI Technology
EC-5213

Dr. T. R. Lenka
Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering
National Institute of Technology Silchar
Learning Objectives
 The students will be able to learn
 The need for Deposition Processes in the Top Down
Manufacturing Process
 The methods used to perform physical and chemical
deposition processes
 The advantages of different deposition processes
 The use of plasma for enhancing deposition
Purpose of Deposition
 Deposition places conductive or insulating layers on a
substrate
 Deposition processes create locally conductive paths
that can be used to interconnect devices
 Deposition can be used to build up more complex
structures one layer at a time
Issues related to deposition
 Quality:
 Composition
 Defect density (e.g. pinholes)
 Contamination
 Mechanical and electrical properties
 Good adhesion
 Minimum stress
 Topography
 Uniform thickness on non-planar surfaces
 Step coverage
 Conformal coverage: uniform
 Space filling in holes, channels
 Voids
 Method of deposition

•Chemical Vapor Deposition

•Physical Vapor Deposition
•Evaporation
•Sputtering
•Strengths and Weaknesses
•Basic Calculations
Deposition Processes
 Physical or Chemical (or both?)
 Physical Processes Deposit the material without
chemical reactions
 Chemical processes utilize liquid or vapor forms of
precursors that react with the surface to form the
desired deposition
 It is possible to combine the processes and gain the
benefits of each
 Many processes are carried out in reduced pressure
(partial vacuum) environments
 CVD
Gases react with substrate
Various types of CVD:
Atmospheric pressure – APCVD
Low pressure – LPCVD
Plasma enhanced – PECVD
High density plasma - HDPCVD

(a)APCVD w/cold wall for deposition of

epitaxial silicon
(b) LPCVD w/hot wall for depositing
polycrystalline and amorphous silicon
 CVD APPLICATIONS

Customized Surfaces
Epitaxial Layers

Insulator Conductors
CVD
Silicon dioxide Polycrystalline
Silicon

Barriers
Silicon Nitride
 General CVD Process Advantages
Excellent Step Coverage
Large Throughput (100 A/min film growth)
Low Temperature Processing (450 to 1000 C)
Applicable to any Vaporization Source Technology
(Laser CVD for direct Writing)
General CVD Process Applications

Epitaxial Films
Enhance performance of Discreet and Integrated Bipolar Devices
Allow Fabrication of RAM’s and CMOS in Bulk Substrate

Dielectrics
Insulation between Conducting Layers
Diffusion and Ion Implant Masks
Capping Dopant Films
Extracting Impurities
Passivation to Protect Structures from
Impurities
Moisture
Scratches

Polysilicon Conductors
Gate Electrodes
Conductors for Multilevel Metalizations
Contacts for Shallow Junction Devices
CVD SYSTEM
Chemical Deposition Processes
 Atmospheric
PressureChemical Vapor
Deposition (APCVD)
 Wafers are heated

 Chemical gases are introduced

 A temperature dependent
deposition rate
 Mass transport limited at
higher temperatures
Chemical Deposition Processes
 Low Pressure (CVD)
 Surface reaction limited
at low pressure
 Chamber may also be
heated or unheated
 Low pressure
environment increases
mean free path
 Better Step Coverage
and conformality than
APCVD
Chemical Deposition Processes
 Plasma Enhanced CVD
(LPCVD)
 Lower Temperature Process
due to Plasma Enhancement
 Dissociation of precursor gas
molecules (Homogeneous
reactions)
 Ions bombard surface
making it more reactive
 Higher rates of deposition
are possible than with
LPCVD
Chemical Deposition Processes
 Anti-reflective coatings
 Reflection from shiny layers below photoresist causes
blurred features
 Utilize thin film deposition to create coatings that have

λ/2 thickness at the exposure lamp wavelength

 This results in destructive interference canceling
reflection in the photoresist layer
 Finer lithography is possible
Steps in CVD

1. Transport reactants via forced convection to reaction region

2. Transport reactants via diffusion to wafer surface
3. Adsorb reactants on surface
4. Surface processes: chemical decomposition, surface
migration, site incorporation, etc.
5. Desorption from surface
6. Transport byproducts through boundary layer
7. Transport byproducts away from deposition region
 FILM GROWTH RATE

Flux through boundary layer:

F1 = hG(CG-Cs) (molecules/cm2/s)

Flux of reactants consumed at surface:

F2 = ksCs (molecules/cm2/s)

Process is limited by slowest step, thus F = F1 = F2

CG
Cs =
 ks 
1 + 
 hG 
 F  cm 
v=  s 
N  
k s hG k s hG CG
F = k s Cs = CG  v =
k s + hG k s + hG N

Define Y = CG/CT = PG/Ptotal

k s hG CT
v= Y
If ks << hG, then v ≈ CT/N ksY k s + hG N
If hG<< ks , then v ≈ CT/N hGY

ks = hGexp(-Ea/kT) Ea ≈ 1.6 eV
CURVE BETWEEN TEPMRETURE AND GROWTH
VELOCITY
 hG = DG/s

The position of the boundary layer

changes wrt x:

x
 s ( x) =
U
Boundary layer velocities along susceptor. s is
the thickness of the boundary layer. The  = viscosity
boundary layer increases with distance in the  = density of gas
direction of gas flow
U = gas velocity

The susceptor in a horizontal epitaxial reactor is

tilted so that the cross-sectional area of the
chamber is decreased, increasing the gas velocity
along the susceptor. This compensates for both
the boundary layer and depletion effects.
PHYSICAL VAPOUR DEPOSITION
(PVD)
PVD system
standard mainframe
Mainframe Components
 Preclean Ch. – Applies a light. Non selective plasma etch to
the wafer before the PVD process.
 Cooldown Ch. – Cools the wafer after the PVD process.
 Expansion Ch. (C&D) – Optionally configured for PVD or
other processes such as etch.
 Wafer orienter/degas Ch. – Orients the wafer flat to a
designated angle and degasses the wafer to remove water
vapor before the preclean process.
 PVD Ch. – DC magnetron sputter deposition chambers for
depositing materials used in interconnects metalization (ex.
Al, Ti, TiN, TiW).
 Cassette loadlocks – The starting point for wafer transfers.
Accept 1 cassette with 25 wafers.
Vacuum system
 PVD system uses Ultra-High Vacuum (UHV) to reduce

particulates and provide purer film qualities.

 The tool uses staged vacuum regimes to achieve UHV.

Pressure regions and vacuum stages
PVD chambers and pumps
SPUTTERING
Sputtering – General
 Sputtering is a term used to describe the
mechanism in which atoms are ejected from the
surface of a material when that surface is stuck by
sufficiency energetic particles.
 Alternative to evaporation.
 First discovered in 1852, and developed as a thin
film deposition technique by Langmuir in 1920.
 Metallic films: Al-alloys, Ti, TiW, TiN, Tantalum,
Nickel, Cobalt, Gold, etc.
Reasons for sputtering
 Use large-area-targets which gives uniform thickness
over the wafer.
 Control the thickness by Dep. time and other
parameters.
 Control film properties such as step coverage
(negative bias), grain structure (wafer temp), etc.
 Sputter-cleaned the surface in vacuum prior to
deposition.
Sputtering steps
1. Ions are generated and directed at a target.

2. The ions sputter targets atoms.

3. The ejected atoms are transported to the substrate.

4. Atoms condense and form a thin film.

 Sputtering
Coating process that involves
the transport of material
from the target to the wafer.
Atoms from the target are
ejected as a result of
momentum transfer
between incident ions and
the target. The particles
traverse the vacuum
chamber and are deposited
on the wafer.
Application of Sputtering
 Thin film deposition:
 Microelectronics
 Decorative coating
 Protective coating
 Etching of targets:
 Microelectronics patterning
 Depth profiling microanalysis
 Surface treatment:
 Hardening
 Corrosion treatment
Sputtering
 Advantages
 Low temperature process
 Good Conformal Coating
 Good Step Coverage
 Disadvantages
 Dielectrics require RF Source
 RF environment may affect other depositions
EVAPORATION
Physical Vapor Deposition: PVD
Advantages:

EVAPORATION Versatile – deposits almost any

material
Very few chemical reactions
Little wafer damage
Limitations:
Line-of-sight
Shadowing
Thickness uniformity
Difficult to evaporate materials with
low vapor pressures
 Flux from a point source

Revap
Fk = cos  k
r 2

Deposition rate from a surface

source:

Revap
v= cos  k cos  i
Geometries of flux and deposition of small areas on a Nr 2

flat wafer holder for (a) a point source and (b) a small
planar surface source
1/ 2
m −2
Revap = 5.83 10 As   Pe
T 
Deposition rate of evaporated film
as function of position on substrate
for point and surface sources. i = k
in this configuration for both point
and surface sources.
Mean free path :

kT
k = 1.36 x 10-2 erg/at-K
=
d≈.4 x 10-8 cm 2d Pe
2

Pe = partial pressure
(torr)
Sticking coefficient: Sc = Freacted/Fincident

The depositing species have a high sticking coefficient (close

to 1) in (a), so that they are deposited where they first strike.
In (b) the depositing species have a low sticking coefficient
(<<1) so that man are reemitted and deposit elsewhere on the
topography, such as the sidewalls.
Thank You!