Relationship between Surface Free Energy of Underlying Layers and O3-TEOS Chemical Vapor Deposition

In this study, we clarify the relationship between the surface free energy (SFE) of the underlying layers and O3-tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) chemical vapor deposition (CVD) film formation. Thermal SiO2, chemical SiO2 or plasma enhanced TEOS (PE-TEOS) SiO2 film is used as the underlying layers. SFE measurement was performed using the Owens-Wendt approach. We found that a direct correlation does not exist; however, the tendency of a proportional relationship could exist between the polar component of SFE and the O3-TEOS CVD rate. The O3-TEOS CVD rate decreased as the polar component of SFE decreased for the surface pretreated with organic solvents.