Investigation of silicon oxide thin film utilizing plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition in ICP etcher

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) has become critical in semiconductor manufacturing because the film thickness and uniformity are controllable at the atomic scale. Silicon oxide (SiO<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf>) thin films are deposited by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) using a Si precursor and oxygen plasmas at room temperature. The deposition process is conducted in an inductively coupled plasma(ICP) chamber and the SiO<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> films are formed at several angstroms per cycle. In addition, the ALD coverage profile on different patterns and the parameters that affect the coverage profile of sidewall protective film in HAR patterns are investigated.