Growth and electrical properties of silicon oxide grown by atomic layer deposition using Bis(ethyl-methyl-amino)silane and ozone

Abstract

Silicon oxide thin film grown at low temperatures (<300–500 °C) is essential for a range of applications in semiconductor devices. In this study, silicon oxide films were deposited at a substrate temperature of ∼300 °C by an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process using Bis(ethyl-methyl-amino)silane (BEMAS). BEMAS precursors adsorbed on the growing surface reacted with ozone but not with H2O. This suggests that the Si–H bonds in the BEMAS precursors adsorbed on the surface are robust and could be cleaved only by ozone. The reaction using BEMAS and ozone exhibited ALD saturation behavior. The dielectric constant of the ALD-SiO2 was measured to be ∼9, which is 2.3 times higher than that (∼3.9) of normal amorphous SiO2. This was attributed to the existence of the ∼10% OH species in the film.