Patent ID: 7405168

Claim:
A method of treating a dielectric film on one or more substrates, comprising: disposing said one or more substrates in a process chamber configured to perform plural treatment processes on a dielectric film formed on at least one of said one or more substrates, wherein said dielectric film comprises an initial dielectric constant having a value less than the dielectric constant of SiO 2 ; performing a thermal treatment process that includes annealing said one or more substrates in order to remove volatile constituents from said dielectric film on said one or more substrates; and after performing the thermal treatment process, performing a chemical treatment process on said one or more substrates, comprising: introducing a treating compound to said dielectric film on said one or more substrates, and heating said one or more substrates, wherein said performing a thermal treatment process comprises increasing the percentage of silanol groups that are replaced with silyl groups on a surface of the dielectric film on the one or more substrates.