Study of As-Deposited and Annealed Atomic Layer Deposited Hafnium Silicate Films

In this study, we are depositing hafnium silicate films using Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) technique with hafnium tetrachloride (HfCl4) and silicon tetrachloride (SiCl4) as precursor and water (H2O) as oxidant. We are analyzing impact of variation in number of ALD cycles on film thickness. We are also studying the impact of SiCl4 vessel temperature and chamber susceptor temperature on hafnium silicate film thickness. The hafnium silicate films were sent to Decoupled Plasma Nitridation (DPN) chamber to form HfSiON followed by Post Nitridation Annealing (PNA) to observe the effect on thickness, Hf-concentration, SiO-bond percentage, N concentration, and O concentration with variation in post nitridation anneal temperature and pressure. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) depth profile data was obtained for annealed and unannealed films. These process parameter modulations help in better understanding of the reaction mechanisms in ALD and PNA.