Applied Materials, Inc.

Apple Inc.

Abhijit Ashok Kangude

Juan Carlos Rocha-Alvarez

Rahul Rajeev

Sanjeev Baluja

Thomas E Nowak

Scott A Hendrickson

Chahal Neema

Yunzhe Yang

Deenesh Padhi

Kelvin Chan

Alexandros T Demos

Kang Sub Yim

Bo Xie

Luke W Bonecutter

Daping Yao

Daemian Raj

Venkatanarayana Shankaramurthy

Shaunak Mukherjee

Elizabeth Neville

Thorsten Kril

Anton Baryshnikov

Arun Chakravarthy Chakravarthy

Mitesh Sanghvi

Mahendra Chhabra

Peter Standish

Vishal Suresh Jamakhandi

Shubham Chowdhuri

Kedar Joshi

Inna Turevsky

Bryan W Posner

Tsutomu Tanaka

Ming Xu

Simon R Lancaster-Larocque

Nathan K Gupta

Yao-Hung Yang

Khokan Chandra Paul

Adam J Fischbach

Karan Bir

Kenneth Le

Rupankar Choudhury

Sudirukkuge T Jinasundera

Liliya Krivulina

Weibo Cheng

Prithu Sharma

Syed A Alam

Kurt R Langeland

Vishal S Jamakhandi

Michael Martinelli

Exemplary semiconductor processing systems may include a lid plate and a gas splitter. The gas splitter may be seated on the lid plate. The gas splitter may include a top surface and a plurality of side surfaces. The gas splitter may define a gas inlet, a gas outlet, a gas lumen that extends between and fluidly couples the gas inlet with the gas outlet, and a first divert lumen that is fluidly coupled with the gas lumen and that directs gases away from a processing chamber through a divert outlet. The semiconductor processing system may include a first divert weldment. The first divert weldment may extend from and fluidly couple to the divert outlet. The first divert weldment may include a first divert weldment outlet and a second divert weldment outlet.

High conductance divert line architecture

Exemplary processing systems may include a chamber body. The systems may include a pedestal configured to support a semiconductor substrate. The systems may include a faceplate. The chamber body, the pedestal, and the faceplate may define a processing region. The faceplate may be coupled with an RF power source. The systems may include a remote plasma unit. The remote plasma unit may be coupled at electrical ground. The systems may include a discharge tube extending from the remote plasma unit towards the faceplate. The discharge tube may define a central aperture. The discharge tube may be electrically coupled with each of the faceplate and the remote plasma unit. The discharge tube may include ferrite extending about the central aperture of the discharge tube.

Semiconductor processing chamber to accommodate parasitic plasma formation

Exemplary methods of forming a silicon-and-carbon-containing material may include flowing a silicon-and-carbon-containing precursor into a processing region of a semiconductor processing chamber. A substrate may be housed within the processing region of the semiconductor processing chamber. The methods may include forming a plasma within the processing region of the silicon-and-carbon-containing precursor. The plasma may be formed at a frequency above 15 MHz. The methods may include depositing a silicon-and-carbon-containing material on the substrate. The silicon-and-carbon-containing material as-deposited may be characterized by a dielectric constant below or about 3.0.

Systems and methods for depositing low-k dielectric films

Exemplary semiconductor processing chambers may include a gasbox including a first plate having a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface. The first plate of the gasbox may define a central aperture that extends from the first surface to the second surface. The first plate may define an annular recess in the second surface. The first plate may define a plurality of apertures extending from the first surface to the annular recess in the second surface. The gasbox may include a second plate characterized by an annular shape. The second plate may be coupled with the first plate at the annular recess to define a first plenum within the first plate.

Gasbox for semiconductor processing chamber

Exemplary substrate processing systems may include a lid plate. The systems may include a gas splitter seated on the lid plate. The gas splitter may define a plurality of gas inlets and gas outlets. A number of gas outlets may be greater than a number of gas inlets. The systems may include a plurality of valve blocks that are interfaced with the gas splitter. Each valve block may define a number of gas lumens. An inlet of each of the gas lumens may be in fluid communication with one of the gas outlets. An interface between the gas splitter and each of the valve blocks may include a choke. The systems may include a plurality of output manifolds seated on the lid plate. The systems may include a plurality of output weldments that may couple an outlet of one of the gas lumens with one of the output manifolds.

Gas delivery system for a shared gas delivery architecture

A method includes identifying time values for a length of time to carry out process fluid delivery within multiple processing chambers that concurrently process multiple substrates; translating each time value to a recipe parameter for execution of an operation of a processing recipe; and causing the operation to be performed using each recipe parameter as a control value to control valves of a fluid panel of the multiple processing chambers. For each processing chamber of the multiple processing chambers, selectively controlling process fluid flow to the process chamber for a first period of time corresponding to a time value of the set of time values and to a divert foreline of the process chamber for a second period of time.

Process fluid path switching in recipe operations

A method includes identifying time values for a length of time to carry out process fluid delivery within multiple processing chambers that concurrently process multiple substrates; translating each time value to a recipe parameter for execution of an operation of a processing recipe; and causing the operation to be performed using each recipe parameter as a control value to control valves of a fluid panel of the multiple processing chambers. For each processing chamber of the multiple processing chambers: causing the process fluid to flow to the processing chamber for a first period of time corresponding to a first time value; and causing the process fluid to flow to a divert foreline of the processing chamber for a second period of time, the second period of time being based on a timestep of the operation and the time value.

Embodiments described herein relate to apparatus and techniques for mechanical isolation and thermal insulation in a process chamber. In one embodiment, an insulating layer is disposed between a dome assembly and a gas ring. The insulating layer is configured to maintain a temperature of the dome assembly and prevent thermal energy transfer from the dome assembly to the gas ring. The insulating layer provides mechanical isolation of the dome assembly from the gas ring. The insulating layer also provides thermal insulation between the dome assembly and the gas ring. The insulating layer may be fabricated from a polyimide containing material, which substantially reduces an occurrence of deformation of the insulating layer.

Dome stress isolating layer

Embodiments described herein provide a backside gas delivery assembly that prevents inert gas from forming parasitic plasma. The backside gas delivery assembly includes a first gas channel disposed in a stem of a substrate support assembly. The substrate support assembly includes a substrate support having a second gas channel extending from the first gas channel. The backside gas delivery assembly further includes a porous plug disposed within the first gas channel positioned at an interface of the stem and the substrate support, a gas source connected to the first gas channel configured to deliver an inert gas to a backside surface of a substrate disposed on an upper surface of the substrate support, and a gas tube in the first gas channel extending to the porous plug positioned at the interface of the stem and the substrate support.

Isolated backside helium delivery system

A hybrid laser modulation and acid etch process for the creation of a patterned substrate. According to some embodiments, a hole is formed in a glass substrate by first modulating a portion of the substrate in the desired shape. A mask is coated on the glass substrate and is patterned to expose the modulated portion. The glass substrate is then acid etched to remove the modulated portion. Once the modulated portion has been etched, the desired shape may be removed from the glass substrate and the mask may be stripped.

Hybrid substrate processing

A cleaning method for a UV chamber involves providing a first cleaning gas, a second cleaning gas, and a purge gas to one or more openings in the chamber. The first cleaning gas may be an oxygen containing gas, such as ozone, to remove carbon residues. The second cleaning gas may be a remote plasma of NFand Oto remove silicon residues. The UV chamber may have two UV transparent showerheads, which together with a UV window in the chamber lid, define a gas volume proximate the UV window and a distribution volume below the gas volume. A purge gas may be flowed through the gas volume while one or more of the cleaning gases is flowed into the distribution volume to prevent the cleaning gases from impinging on the UV transparent window.

Method and hardware for cleaning UV chambers

The present invention generally relates to methods of controlling UV lamp output to increase irradiance uniformity. The methods generally include determining a baseline irradiance within a chamber, determining the relative irradiance on a substrate corresponding to a first lamp and a second lamp, and determining correction or compensation factors based on the relative irradiances and the baseline irradiance. The lamps are then adjusted via closed loop control using the correction or compensation factors to individually adjust the lamps to the desired output. The lamps may optionally be adjusted to equal irradiances prior to adjusting the lamps to the desired output. The closed loop control ensures process uniformity from substrate to substrate. The irradiance measurement and the correction or compensation factors allow for adjustment of lamp set points due to chamber component degradation, chamber component replacement, or chamber cleaning.

Dual-bulb lamphead control methodology

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Abhijit Ashok Kangude