Effect of the pressure on the chemical vapor deposition of copper from copper hexafluoroacetylacetonate trimethylvinylsilane

The effects of the deposition pressure on the deposition rate and the properties of the copper film prepared by chemical vapor deposition were studied. Copper films were deposited on titanium nitride (TiN) substrates in a low-pressure warm-wall reactor using copper(I) hexafluoroacetylacetonate trimethylvinylsilane, Cu(hfac)(tmvs), as the precursor. The deposition temperature was varied between 160 degrees C and 220 degrees C, and the deposition pressure was varied in the range 0.25-1.0 Torr. The deposition rate decreased with total pressure in the low-temperature region limited by surface reaction, whereas the rates were constant in the high-temperature region limited by mass transport. The decease of deposition rate in the region limited by surface reaction is thought to be due to the by-product inhibition. The transition temperatures of the kinetic region and the surface morphology coincided with each other. In addition, both of them increased with the total pressure of the reactor. The surface roughness and resistivity decreased with total pressure, and showed rapid increase with deposition temperature. The effect of the partial pressure of the precursor on the deposition rate was also investigated. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.