Tungsten hexafluoride
Tungsten fluoride, also known as tungsten hexafluoride, is an inorganic compound with the formula. It is a toxic, corrosive, colorless gas, with a density of about . It is the densest known gas under standard ambient temperature and pressure and the only well-characterized gas under these conditions that contains a transition metal. is commonly used by the semiconductor industry to form tungsten films, through the process of chemical vapor deposition. This layer is used in a low-resistivity metallic "interconnect". It is one of seventeen known binary hexafluorides.
Properties
The molecule is octahedral with the symmetry point group of Oh. The W–F bond distances are. Between, tungsten hexafluoride condenses into a colorless liquid having the density of at. At it freezes into a white solid having a cubic crystalline structure, a lattice constant of, and calculated density. At, this structure transforms into an orthorhombic solid with the lattice constants of a =, b =, and c =, and a density of. In this phase, the W–F distance is, and the mean closest molecular contacts are. Whereas gas is one of the densest gases, with a density exceeding that of the heaviest elemental gas radon, the density of in the liquid and solid state is rather moderate. The vapor pressure of between can be described by the equationwhere the P = vapor pressure, T = temperature.
History and synthesis
Tungsten hexafluoride was first obtained by conversion of tungsten hexachloride with hydrogen fluoride by Otto Ruff and Fritz Eisner in 1905:The compound is now commonly produced by the exothermic reaction of fluorine gas with tungsten powder at a temperature between :
The gaseous product is separated from [Tungsten oxytetrafluoride|], a common impurity, by distillation. In a variation on the direct fluorination, the metal is placed in a heated reactor, slightly pressurized to, with a constant flow of infused with a small amount of fluorine gas.
The fluorine gas in the above method can be substituted by ClF, [Chlorine trifluoride|], or [Bromine trifluoride|]. An alternative procedure for producing tungsten fluoride is to treat tungsten trioxide with HF,, or [Sulfur tetrafluoride|]. And besides HF, other fluorinating agents can also be used to convert tungsten hexachloride in a way similar to Ruff and Eisner's original method:
Reactions
On contact with water, tungsten hexafluoride gives hydrogen fluoride and tungsten oxyfluorides, eventually forming tungsten trioxide:Unlike some other metal fluorides, is not a useful fluorinating agent, nor is it a powerful oxidant. It can be reduced to the yellow.
forms a variety of 1:1 and 1:2 adducts with Lewis bases, examples being.
Applications in the semiconductor industry
The dominant application of tungsten fluoride is in the semiconductor industry, where it is widely used for depositing tungsten metal in a chemical vapor deposition process. The expansion of the industry in the 1980s and 1990s resulted in an increase in consumption, which remains at around 200 tonnes per year worldwide. Tungsten metal is attractive because of its relatively high thermal and chemical stability, as well as low resistivity and very low electromigration. is favored over related compounds, such as [Tungsten hexachloride|] or [Tungsten hexabromide|], because of its higher vapor pressure resulting in higher deposition rates. Since 1967, two deposition routes have been developed and employed: thermal decomposition and hydrogen reduction. The required gas purity is rather high and varies between 99.98% and 99.9995% depending on the application.molecules have to be split up in the CVD process. The decomposition is usually facilitated by mixing with hydrogen, silane, germane, diborane, phosphine, and related hydrogen-containing gases.
Silicon
reacts upon contact with a silicon substrate. The decomposition on silicon is temperature-dependent:This dependence is crucial, as twice as much silicon is consumed at higher temperatures. The deposition occurs selectively on pure silicon only, but not on silicon dioxide or silicon nitride; thus, the reaction is highly sensitive to contamination or substrate pre-treatment. The decomposition reaction is fast, but saturates when the tungsten layer thickness reaches 10–15 micrometers. The saturation occurs because the tungsten layer stops diffusion of molecules to the Si substrate, which is the only catalyst of molecular decomposition in this process.
If the deposition occurs not in an inert atmosphere but in an oxygen-containing atmosphere, then instead of tungsten, a tungsten oxide layer is produced.
Hydrogen
The deposition process occurs at temperatures between 300 and 800 °C and results in formation of hydrogen fluoride vapors:The crystallinity of the produced tungsten layers can be controlled by altering the /[hydrogen|] ratio and the substrate temperature: low ratios and temperatures result in (100)-oriented tungsten crystallites, whereas higher values favor the orientation. Formation of HF is a drawback, as HF vapor is very aggressive and etches away most materials. Also, the deposited tungsten shows poor adhesion to the silicon dioxide which is the main passivation material in semiconductor electronics. Therefore, [silicon dioxide|] has to be covered with an extra buffer layer prior to the tungsten deposition. On the other hand, etching by HF may be beneficial to remove unwanted impurity layers.
Silane and germane
The characteristic features of tungsten deposition from /[silane|] are high speed, good adhesion, and layer smoothness. The drawbacks are explosion hazard and high sensitivity of the deposition rate and morphology to the process parameters, such as mixing ratio, substrate temperature, etc. Therefore, silane is commonly used to create a thin tungsten nucleation layer. It is then switched to hydrogen, which slows down the deposition and cleans up the layer.Deposition from a /[germane|] mixture is similar to that of /, but the tungsten layer becomes contaminated with relatively heavy germanium up to concentrations of 10–15%. This increases tungsten resistivity from about 5 to.
Other applications
can be used for the production of tungsten carbide.As a heavy gas, can be used as a buffer to control gas reactions. For example, it slows down the chemistry of the Ar/[oxygen|]/[hydrogen|] flame and reduces the flame temperature.