A Photochemical Process Investigation of Slica Thin Films by an Irradiation from an Ar2* Excimer Lamp

Room temperature (RT) deposition of silica thin films is available with vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique. However, the quality of the films with VUV-CVD was inferior to that with conventional methods. In this work, we have investigated the photochemical reaction using an Ar2* excimer lamp. After 1-min deposition, the irradiation of Ar2* excimer lamp to the obtained film was operated with the evacuation in the chamber. From the result of Fourier transmission infrared spectrometer spectra and an X-ray photoelectron spectroscope measurement, it was found that hydrogen and hydrocarbon, such as CH3, was reduced with the irradiation of Ar2* excimer lamp. Therefore, it was considered that the film with low impurities could be obtained at RT by this technique. This technique is considered to be effective, because the operation could have performed at RT. We can conclude that this method will be a very useful method for no damage process of ultra large scale integration production in the semiconductor industry.