GAP-FILL CAPABILITY OF SUBATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE CHEMICALLY VAPOR DEPOSITED TEOS-OZONE DOPED GLASS FILMS ANNEALED AT LOW THERMAL BUDGET CONDITIONS V. Y. Vassiliev, C.Y.Wang, J.L. Sudijono, A. Cuthbertson, Technology Development Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd. 60 Woodlands Ind. Park D, Street 2, 738406, Singapore Tel: (65)-3604732 Fax: (65)-3622936 T. Chu, P.C. Tan, Y.S. Heng, and Gang Zou, Applied Materials South-East Asia Pte. Ltd., 200 Pandan Loop #08-01/04 Pantech 21 Computer Centre Singapore 128388 A. Bhatnagar, Rong Pan, and P. Gee, Applied Materials, Inc., 3320 Scotts Boulevard, M/S 1163 Santa Clara, 95054, USA ABSTRACT Gap-fill capability of SAPSG and SABPSG films deposited using 1-step and 2-step deposition processes at 480 and 550°C and annealed at low thermal budget conditions in a dry gas ambient have been studied for film application as a void-free Pre Metal Dielectric for 0.18 μm device technology and beyond. Gap-fill capability was found to be strongly effected by using different structure types. “Tapered” structures with 0.03 μm gaps and aspect ratios up to 6 have been successfully filled with all studied film options using rapid thermal anneal at temperatures as low as 800-850°C for 30 s in nitrogen ambient. Difficulties with film gap-fill capability have been found to arise with the use of “vertical”, “partly vertical” and especially, with “re-entrant” structures. Films of fluorinated borophosphosilicate glass deposited at subatmospheric pressure conditions (SA F-BPSG) have been found to be able to improve gap-fill for “vertical” structures significantly at the same low thermal budget anneal condition. INTRODUCTION TEOS-ozone based borophosphosilicate glass (BPSG) films are routinely used as a Pre Metal Dielectric (PMD) material in sub-half micron ULSI technology [1-4]. As device features shrink below sub-quarter micron along with requirements to decrease device thermal budget, insufficient gap-fill capability of BPSG films annealed at low thermal budget conditions becomes an issue. The goal of this paper is to focus on the BPSG film gap-fill related issues. We have summarized results of the long term experimental studies of BPSG films gap-fill capability at very low thermal budget anneal conditions, such as furnace anneal below film flow temperature and RTA at temperature above film flow temperature.