The implementation of ultralow dielectric constant (k value ≈ 2) materials to reduce signal propagation delay in advanced electronic devices represents a critical challenge in next generations of microelectronics technologies. The introduction of well‐stacked and low polarity molecules that do not compromise film density may lead to improvements and desirable material engineering, as conventional porous SiOx derivatives exhibit detrimental degradation of thermo‐mechanical properties when their k values are further scaled down. This work presents a systematic engineering approach for controlling ultralow‐k amorphous boron nitride (aBN) deposition on 300 mm Si platforms. The results indicate that aBN grown from borazine precursor exhibits ultralow dielectric constant ≈2, high density, excellent mechanical strength, and extended thermodynamic stability. Unintentional boron ion doping during plasma dissociation that may induce artificial reductions of k value on n‐type substrates is alleviated by employing a remote microwave plasma process. Moreover, the adoption of low growth rate processes for ultralow‐k aBN deposition is found to be critical to provide for the superior mechanical strength and high density, and is attributed to the formation of hexagonal ring stacking frameworks. These results pave the way and offer engineering solutions for new ultralow‐k material introduction into future semiconductor manufacturing applications.
The growth mechanism associated with the nucleation and growth kinetics of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) on Cu through chemical vapor deposition (CVD) has been studied. A fully covered hBN film with a large grain size has been obtained by lowering the density of the grain boundary during the thermal CVD. The Cu substrate is first annealed under the H2 ambiance in order to efficiently reduce the copper oxide on the surface and promote the Cu surface with the (111) plane. Next, the nucleation and growth kinetics of CVD hBN are investigated by the analysis of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images and the Johnson–Mehl–Avrami–Kolmogorov model. The hBN growth is overall dominated by nucleation under a low flow rate of H2, while it is initially dominated by grain growth under a high flow rate of H2 and the grain size of hBN can be larger than 25 μm. The competition between nucleation and grain growth is reversed at higher temperatures, resulting from the wavier Cu surface. Furthermore, the hBN film is grown by the inductively coupled plasma-enhanced CVD (ICP-CVD) and its growth mechanism is compared with that of CVD hBN. The growth rate of ICP-CVD hBN is 50 times faster than that of CVD hBN due to more energetic B and N species caused by plasma. The growth mechanism of ICP-CVD hBN without a long incubation time is dominated by nucleation.
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