National Semiconductor Corporation

Maxim Integrated Products, Inc.

Daniel Henry Rosenblatt

Alexander Kalnitsky

Stepan Essaian

Joseph P Ellul

Viktor Zekeriya

Melvin Schmidt

Jonathan Herman

Glenn Nobinger

Vijaykumar Ullal

A method of modifying a layer of thin film composite material to achieve one or more desired properties for the thin film layer which cannot be achieved by heat treatment at all practical temperatures of operation allowable by particular integrated circuit processes. In particular, the thin film composite material is subjected to an ion implantation process. Depending on the doping species, the doping concentration, the doping energy, and other ion implantation parameters, one or more properties of the deposited thin film resistive layer can be modified. Such properties may include electrical, optical, thermal and physical properties. For instance, the sheet resistance and/or the temperature coefficient of resistance of the thin film composite material may be increased or decreased by appropriately implanting ions into the material. The ion implantation can be applied globally in order to modify one or more properties of the entire deposited thin film composite layer. Alternatively, the ion implantation can be applied regionally in order to modify the thin film composite material at a first region, not modify the thin film composite material at a second region, and/or modify the thin film composite material in another way at a third region.

Method of modifying properties of deposited thin film material

Ion implantation of fluorine into SiO.sub.2 films results in formation of a dielectric material having a dielectric constant K.ltoreq.3.2. High energies associated with ion implantation permit stable introduction of high concentrations of fluorine within silicon oxide, without giving rise to problems of fluorine outgassing and water absorption associated with conventional FSG deposition techniques. Relatively thick FSG layers conventionally formed by CVD may be sandwiched between implanted FSG liner films formed in accordance with the present invention. Such a combination would reduce the dielectric constant of the dielectric structure as a whole while providing a barrier to fluorine diffusion, without consuming the processing time required to implant an entire dielectric layer.

F ion implantation into oxide films to form low-K intermetal dielectric

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San Carlos, CA, United States of America

Daniel Henry Rosenblatt