Silicon nitride produced by catalytic chemical vapor deposition method

Abstract

The catalytic chemical vapor deposition method is applied to obtain silicon nitride insulating films usable in large‐scale integrated circuits. A N₂ H₄, N₂ , and SiH₄ gas mixture is decomposed by the catalytic or pyrolytic reaction with a heated catalyzer placed near substrates, and thus silicon nitride films are deposited at low temperatures around 300 °C with deposition rates higher than several hundreds Å/min, without any help from plasma and photochemical excitation. It is found that the resistivity, the breakdown electric field, and also the hydrogen content of the films can be almost equivalent to those of the films deposited by the thermal chemical vapor deposition at 700 °C or more, and that their step coverage appears sufficient to apply them on device fabrication.