Atomistic scale modeling of plasma-material interactions for enhanced amorphous carbon layer performance in semiconductor manufacturing

With the advent of complex and sophisticated architectures in semiconductor device manufacturing, the performance of amorphous carbon layer (ACL) for a mask needs to be enhanced in terms of durability, residual stress, optical features, etc. However, due to the sensitive nature of ACL property to the process condition of plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), it is challenging to tailor and further optimize the property of ACL thin film with experimental approaches. In this work, we conducted reactive molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to understand the fundamental property of ACL considering varying bond hybridization and hydrogen content. The elastic modulus, hardness and thermal expansion coefficient of ACL were examined and compared with experimental values. Moreover, PECVD process was modeled at the atomistic scale; we found a significant relationship between the incident energy of plasma species and the resultant layer characteristics such as structural conformation and residual stress evolution. The proposed computational framework provides the structure-property relationship of ACL and the resultant layer feature. Based on the information obtained from the atomistic scale simulations, it can be used as a concrete guidance for optimizing the ACL deposition process. Furthermore, the present method can be applied to investigate the fundamental nature of various plasma-material interactions for developing advanced equipment and process in semiconductor manufacturing.