Mei Y Shek

US Patent:

6451686, Sep 17, 2002

Filed:

Sep 4, 1997

Appl. No.:

08/923501

Inventors:

Chris Ngai - Burlingame CA
Joel Glenn - Little Elm TX
Mei Yee Shek - Burlingame CA
Judy Huang - Los Gatos CA

Assignee:

Applied Materials, Inc. - Santa Clara CA

International Classification:

A01L 214763

US Classification:

438623, 438784

Abstract:

A method and apparatus for reducing oxide traps within a silicon oxide film by incorporating a selected level of fluorine in the silicon oxide film. The method includes the steps of distributing a fluorine source to a processing chamber at a selected rate with the rate being chosen according to the desired level of fluorine to be incorporated into the film, flowing a process gas including a silicon source, an oxygen source and the fluorine source into the processing chamber, and maintaining a deposition zone within the chamber at processing conditions suitable to deposit a silicon oxide film having the selected level of fluorine incorporated into the film over a substrate disposed in the chamber. In a preferred embodiment, the selected level of fluorine incorporated into the film is between 1Ã10 atoms/cm and 1Ã10 atoms/cm. In another preferred embodiment the silicon oxide film is deposited as a first layer of a composite layer premetal dielectric film.