Low damage etching method of low-k material with a neutral beam for interlayer dielectric of semiconductor device

To reduce the cross-talk between nanoscale devices, low-k materials such as methyl silsesquioxane (MSQ), which is damaged easily during plasma etching, are introduced as an intermetallic dielectric material in addition to the use of copper as the conducting material for the reduction of parasitic resistance and capacitance. In this study, beam techniques such as neutral/ion beams were used in the etching of MSQ and the effect of these beam techniques on the reduction of the degradation of the MSQ were investigated. When MSQ was etched using the same CF4 etch gas at the similar etch rate as that used for conventional MSQ etching using inductively coupled plasmas (ICPs), the neutral/ion beam etching showed lower F contents and lower penetration depth of F, indicating decreased degradation by fluorination of MSQ during etching using the beam techniques. Especially, the neutral beam etching technique showed the lowest F contamination and the lower penetration depth of F among the etch methods. When the dielectric constant was measured after the etching of the same depth, the MSQ etched with the neutral beam showed the lowest change of the dielectric constant, while that etched using the ICP showed the highest change of dielectric constant. The lower degradation, that is, the lower chemical modification of MSQ material with the beam technique is believed to be related to the decreased concentration of radical species in the processing chamber reacting with the MSQ surface, while the lowest degradation using the neutral beam is believed to be due to the lower reaction rate of the reactive neutral compared to reactive ions. (C) 2015 American Vacuum Society.