Study on the Performance of PECVD Silicon Nitride Thin Films

Mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of Si3N4 films are studied by using different experiment parameters, such as plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition(PECVD) RF power, ratio of reaction gas, reaction pressure and working temperature. The etching process of Si3N4 is studied by inductively coupled plasma (ICP) with a gas mixture of SF6 and O2. The influence of the technique parameters, such as ICP power, DC bias, gas composition, total flow rate, on the etching selectivity of Si3N4/EPG533 which is used as a mask layer and the etching rate of Si3N4 is studied, in order to get a better etching selectivity of Si3N4/EPG533 with a faster etching rate of Si3N4. The optimized process parameters of etching Si3N4 by ICP are obtained after a series of experiments and analysis. Under the conditions of total ICP power of 250 W, DC bias of 50W, total flow rate of 40 sccm and O2 composition of 30%, the etching selectivity of 2.05 can be reached when Si3N4 etching rate is 336 nm/min.