The Characteristics of LPCVD Aluminum Films: Nucleation and Selectivity

Growth kinetics of CVD Al films using TIBA(Tri-IsoButyl-Aluminum) as a source material were investigated. Nucleation activation energy of aluminum on the silicon substrate was determined to be 3.2 eV for the first time in this work. It turned out that selectivity between Si and SiO2 was very sensitive to the substrate temperature during deposition, which could be well explained from the nucleation activation energy derived in this work. It was found that the surface topology of aluminum films could be improved by reduction of nucleation activation energy through pre-treatment of the substrate.