Qingguo Wu, K. Gleason
Mar 1, 2003
Citations
1
Influential Citations
24
Citations
Journal
Plasmas and Polymers
Abstract
Octamethyltrisiloxane (OMTS), bis(trimethylsiloxy)methylsilane (BTMS), or 1,1,3,3-tetramethyldisiloxane (TMDS) mixed with oxygen and argon produced organosilicate glass (OSG) films having high methyl content under pulse plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). The hydrogen concentration in films deposited from OMTS, BTMS, and TMDS can exceed twice the maximum concentration in films grown from methylsilane precursors. However, the refractive indices and dielectric constants of the films grown from OMTS, BTMS, and TMDS were close to that of minimum values observed for the films grown from methylsilane precursors. This suggests that at high concentrations, methyl incorporation does not result in further reduction of film density. 29Si nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) resolves the complex differences in the structure of the OSG films that are not apparent from Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and reveals that the stability of OSG materials is improved by eliminating M groups and favoring the incorporation of T groups. These films exhibit low dielectric constants in the range of 2.4–2.6.