Variation of Local Mechanical Stress During the Different Processing Steps of Ic-Isolation: a Micro-Raman Spectroscopy Study

Local mechanical stress introduced in the silicon substrate during the successive steps of poly-buffered local isolation of MOS integrated circuits is studied with micro-Raman spectroscopy. It is shown that the magnitude and the local variation of the stress is highly affected by the different processing steps. After deposition of the nitride mask, the stress can be described as caused by an edge-force. Field oxidation reduces the mask-induced stress but introduces thermal stress from the field oxide. Also the formation of the bird’s beak gives rise to additional local tensile stress, especially at the tip of the bird’s beak. Removal of the nitride mask results in a partial relaxation: the stress caused by the bird’s beak relaxes. In this last stage of the isolation process, the stress image is mostly determined by the field oxide.