Stress hysteresis and mechanical properties of plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposited dielectric films

A comprehensive survey is described of the responses of three plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposited dielectric film systems to thermal cycling and indentation contact. All three films—silicon oxide, silicon nitride, and silicon oxy-nitride—exhibited significant nonequilibrium permanent changes in film stress on thermal cycling or annealing. The linear relationship between stress and temperature changed after the films were annealed at 300 °C, representing a structural alteration in the film reflecting a change in coefficient of thermal expansion or biaxial modulus. A double-substrate method was used to deduce both thermoelastic properties before and after the anneal of selected films and the results were compared with the modulus deconvoluted from small-scale depth-sensing indentation experiments (nanoindentation). Rutherford backscattering spectrometry and hydrogen forward scattering were used to deduce the composition of the films and it was found that all the films contained significant amounts of hydrogen.