DEPOSITION OF HIGHLY CROSS-LINKED FLUORINATED AMORPHOUS-CARBON FILM AND STRUCTURAL EVOLUTION DURING THERMAL ANNEALING

Highly crosslinked fluorinated amorphous carbon films are obtained by increasing deposition temperature. enhancing ion bombardment, and fine tuning the fluorine-to-carbon ratio. The as-deposited films undergo s ignificant mechanical, chemical, and electrical changes after thermal annealing. Most importantly, these changes occur only at the initial s tage of annealing. After the thermal treatment, the films tend to be t hermally stable and retain reasonably good electrical properties for u se as a low-k dielectric. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.