The novel improvement of low dielectric constant methylsilsesquioxane by N ₂ O plasma treatment

The organic silsesquioxane, methylsilsesquioxane (MSQ), has a low dielectric constant because of its lower film density compared to thermal oxide. However, the quality of MSQ film is degraded by the damage of oxygen plasma and hygroscopic behavior during photoresist stripping. In this work, we studied the N₂O plasma treatment for improving the quality of MSQ. The leakage current of MSQ decreases as the N₂O plasma treatment time is increased. The dielectric constant of N₂O plasma-treated sample remains constant (∼2.7). In addition, the thermal stability of MSQ film can be enhanced. The role of N₂O plasma is to convert the surface layer of organic MSQ into inorganic type by decomposition of the alkyl group and thus form a passivation layer. The inert passivation layer enhances the resistance to moisture uptake and O2 plasma attack. Therefore, N2O plasma-treatment greatly improves the quality of low k MSQ film and removes the issue of photoresist stripping in the integrated process.