Planarization of SiO2 films using reactive ion beam in plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition

We have developed a substrate biased plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition technique to fill high aspect ratio submicron gap in first metal contact layer. In this technique, active ion deposition from tetraethylorthosilicate and oxygen and ion bombardment from oxygen and argon ions occurred concurrently to fill 0.5 μm height/0.5 μm space aluminum patterns on silicon wafer without forming soft spots and keyholes. The effects of argon ions to the modification of surface topography are discussed. The deposited films have a low residual stress (< −3 × 109 dyne/cm2) and wet etching rate. The properties of the deposited films have been evaluated by infrared spectroscopy and triangular voltage sweeping technique.