In this paper, UV-induced large area growth of high dielectric constant (Ta2O5, TiO2and PZT) and low dielectric constant (polyimide and porous silica) thin films by photo-CVD and sol-gel processing using excimer lamps, as well as the effect of low temperature LW annealing, are discussed. Ellipsometry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), UV spectrophotometry, atomic force microscope (AFM), capacitance-voltage (C-V) and current-voltage (I-V) measurements have been employed to characterize oxide films grown and indicate them to be high quality layers. Leakage current densities as low as 9.0×10−8 Acm−2 and 1.95×10−7 Acm−2 at 0.5 MV/cm have been obtained for the as-grown Ta2O5 films formed by photo-induced sol-gel processing and photo-CVD. respectively - several orders of magnitude lower than for any other as-grown films prepared by any other technique. A subsequent low temperature (400°C) UV annealing step improves these to 2.0×10−9 Acm−2 and 6.4× 10−9 Acm−2, respectively. These values are essentially identical to those only previously formed for films annealed at temperatures between 600 and 1000°C. PZT thin films have also been deposited at low temperatures by photo-assisted decomposition of a PZT metal-organic sol-gel polymer using the 172 nm excimer lamp. Very low leakage current densities (10−7 A/cm2) can be achieved, which compared with layers grown by conventional thermal processing. Photo-induced deposition of low dielectric constant organic polymers for interlayer dielectrics has highlighted a significant role of photo effects on the curing of polyamic acid films. I-V measurements showed the leakage current density of the irradiated polymer films was over an order of magnitude smaller than has been obtained in the films prepared by thermal processing. Compared with conventional furnace processing, the photo-induced curing of the polyimide provided both reduced processing time and temperature, A new technique of low temperature photo-induced sol-gel process for the growth of low dielectric constant porous silicon dioxide thin films from TEOS sol-gel solutions with a 172 nm excimer lamp has also been successfully demonstrated. The dielectric constant values as low as 1.7 can be achieved at room temperature. The applications investigated so far clearly demonstrate that low cost high power excimer lamp systems can provide an interesting alternative to conventional UV lamps and excimer lasers for industrial large-scale low temperature materials processing.
