Amorphous carbon films (ACFs) have recently emerged as one of the best candidates for etching-resistant hardmask materials in advanced semiconductor manufacturing processes. Etching resistivity of ACFs is known to be improved by controlling the relative abundance between sp² and sp³ bonds. We have investigated the relative abundance between sp² and sp³ bonds in several ACFs, fabricated by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition at different temperatures, which were analyzed by using X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. We found that the relative abundance of sp² bond increased as the growth temperature was raised. Furthermore, the ACFs eventually evolved into nano-crystalline graphite with increasing growth temperature.

非晶碳膜（ACF）最近已成为先进的半导体制造工艺中抗蚀刻硬掩模材料的最佳候选材料之一。已知可以通过控制sp ²和sp ³键之间的相对丰度来改善ACF的耐蚀性。我们研究了通过在不同温度下通过等离子体增强化学气相沉积制备的几个ACF中sp ²和sp ³键之间的相对丰度，并使用X射线光电子能谱，拉曼光谱和透射电子显微镜对其进行了分析。我们发现sp ²的相对丰度随着生长温度的升高，键增加。此外，随着生长温度的升高，ACF最终演化为纳米晶体石墨。