Method of controlling stress in a film

US6328794A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• International Business Machines Corporation · US

Inventors

• Donald W. Brouillette · Saint Albans, US
• Timothy C. Krywanczyk · South Burlington, US
• Jerome B. Lasky · South Burlington, US
• Rick L. Mohler · Williston, US
• Wolfgang Rauscher · Parkstetten, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Oct 6, 1997
• Grant date: Dec 11, 2001
• Expiry date: Oct 6, 2017

Classification

• Technology area (CPC B): Performing Operations; Transporting
• CPC primary: B81C2201/0169
• WIPO field: Semiconductors
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A method of providing a predetermined level and state of stress in a film deposited on a surface of a substrate. In one embodiment, a layer of crystalline material is deposited on a surface of a substrate and then a layer of amorphous material is deposited on the layer of crystalline material. Then, the layers are heated, causing the amorphous material to crystallize. Such crystallization reduces, or even changes the state of, stress in the amorphous layer, which in turn alters the forces applied by the layer to adjacent regions of the substrate. The method may be used for filling a deep-trench capacitor of the type used in trench-storage DRAMs.