Methods and systems of forming treated silicon-carbon material are disclosed. Exemplary methods include depositing silicon-carbon material onto a surface of the substrate and treating the silicon-carbon material. The step of treating can include a first treatment step followed by a second treatment step, wherein the first treatment step includes providing first reductant gas activated species and the second treatment step includes providing one or more of a first oxidant gas activated species and a second reductant gas activated species.

The present disclosure relates to a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device. The method for manufacturing a semiconductor device, according to one embodiment, may comprise a gap-fill step of burying a gap-fill oxide in trenches formed on a substrate, so as to form a gap-fill oxide film. In one embodiment, the gap-fill step can comprise a high pressure oxidation (HPO) step. According to embodiments, a semiconductor device with electrical properties superior to those of a conventional semiconductor device can be manufactured.

Embodiments herein provide for oxygen based treatment of low-k dielectric layers deposited using a flowable chemical vapor deposition (FCVD) process. Oxygen based treatment of the FCVD deposited low-k dielectric layers desirably increases the Ebd to capacitance and reliability of the devices while removing voids. Embodiments include methods and apparatus for making a semiconductor device including: etching a metal layer disposed atop a substrate to form one or more metal lines having a top surface, a first side, and a second side; depositing a passivation layer atop the top surface, the first side, and the second side under conditions sufficient to reduce or eliminate oxygen contact with the one or more metal lines; depositing a flowable layer of low-k dielectric material atop the passivation layer in a thickness sufficient to cover the one or more metal lines; and contacting the flowable layer of low-k dielectric material with oxygen under conditions sufficient to anneal and increase a density of the low-k dielectric material.

A layered structure can include a porous layer over a substrate and a thermal layer coupled to pore walls of the porous layer. The porous layer can have a higher resistivity than the substrate. A stress of the porous layer can be proportional to a variance of infrared (IR) transmission data of the porous layer. The variance of IR transmission data can be no greater than 2,500. Advantageously the thermal layer can decrease stress in the porous layer, increase thermal stability of the porous layer, decrease cracking and flaking during high temperature processing, maintain high resistivity of the porous layer, and increase the quality of the epitaxial layer and/or semiconductor devices formed using the porous layer.