Oxygen plasma damage to blanket and patterned ultralow-kappa (ULK) dielectric surfaces was investigated by examining the effect of plasma species and dielectric materials. Blanket ULK films and patterned structures were treated by O-2 plasma in a remote plasma chamber where the ions and radicals from the plasma source can be separately controlled to study their respective roles in the damage process. The plasma damage was characterized by angle resolved x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, x-ray reflectivity, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Studies of the angle dependence of oxygen plasma damage to blanket ULK films indicated that damage by ions was anisotropic while that by radicals was isotropic. Ions were found to play an important role in assisting carbon depletion by oxygen radicals on the blanket film surface. More plasma damage was observed with increasing porosity in ultralow-kappa films. Probable reaction paths were proposed by analyzing the reaction by-products. Plasma damage to the sidewall of low-kappa trenches was examined by electron energy loss (EELS) analysis. The depletion depth of carbon was found to be related to the penetration of radical species into the porous dielectric and the distribution at the sidewall and trench bottom was affected by the trench pattern geometry, i.e., the aspect ratio, which can be correlated with the electron potential distribution and subsequent trajectory of ions. Vapor silylation was applied for dielectric recovery of trench structure and the result was examined by EELS. The trimethylchlorosilane was found to be effective for recovery of the sidewall carbon loss. The recovery was better for loss induced by radical O-2 than by hybrid O-2 and the difference was attributed to the surface densification by ions limiting the mass transport of vapor chemicals. (C) 2010 American Vacuum Society. [DOI: 10.1116/1.3281525]