Applied Materials, Inc.

Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, Inc.

Read Rite Corporation

Adolph Miller Allen

Xianmin Tang

Fuhong Zhang

Zhenbin Ge

William R Johanson

Keith A Miller

Rongjun Wang

Kirankumar Neelasandra Savandaiah

Joung Joo Lee

Goichi Yoshidome

Vanessa Faune

Tza-Jing Gung

Xiangjin Xie

Zhong Qiang Hua

Yu Liu

Vaibhav Soni

Mei Yin Chang

Martin Lee Riker

Alan A Ritchie

Lei Zhou

Xiaodong Wang

Kishor Kumar Kalathiparambil

William Fruchterman

Kathleen Ann Scheible

Halbert Chong

Michael Allen Flanigan

Shouyin Zhang

Xinyuan Chong

Weize Hu

Brij Datta

Steven Verhaverbeke

Philip Allan Kraus

Feng Quan Liu

Kartik Bhupendra Shah

Roman Gouk

Feng Chen

Hong Sheng Yang

Kevin Vincent Moraes

Michael Sterling Jackson

Viachslav Babayan

Karthik Ramanathan

Song-Moon Suh

Satish Radhakrishnan

Alexander C Kontos

Daping Yao

Jingjing Liu

Alexander Jansen

Anthony Chih-Tung Chan

Wenjing Xu

Karthikeyan Balaraman

Cristopher Mark Pavloff

Mitrabhanu Sahu

Srinivas D Nemani

Vivek G Gupta

Srinivas Gandikota

Michael Wayne Stowell, Jr

Kelvin Chan

Anantha K Subramani

Muhammad M Rasheed

Michael Santiago Cox

Lara Hawrylchak

Yong Cao

Chentsau Chris Ying

Michael D Armacost

Ted Tie Guo

Prashanth Kothnur

Michael Johnson

Kenric T Choi

Rajesh Prasad

Bhargav S Citla

Rui Li

Kyu-Ha Shim

Donny Young

Sang-Ho Yu

Amir Bayati

Chong Jiang

Jamshid Bozorgi

Wei Lei

Mohammad Kamruzzaman Chowdhury

Zhendong Liu

Shirish A Pethe

Lanlan Zhong

Xin Wang

Ryan Hanson

Aravind Kamath

Nobuyuki Sasaki

Lei Jing

Prashant Prabhakar Prabhu

Zhigang Xie

William John Durand

Michelle SanPedro

Mukund Sundararajan

Winsor Lam

Tom Ho Wing Yu

Pallavi Zhang

Ki Hwan Yoon

Randal Dean Schmieding

Shiyu Yue

Carl R Johnson

Paul Kiely

Methods and apparatus for processing a substrate are provided herein. For example, a gas supply configured for use with a processing chamber includes an ampoule that stores a precursor and comprises an input to receive a carrier gas and an output to provide a mixture of the carrier gas and the precursor to the processing chamber and a sensor assembly comprising a detector and an infrared source operably connected to an outside of an enclosure, through which the mixture flows, and a gas measurement volume disposed within the enclosure and along an inner wall thereof so that a concentration of the precursor in the mixture can be measured by the detector and transmitted to a controller.

Methods and apparatus for processing a substrate

Methods and apparatus for generating a magnetic field external to a physical vapor deposition (PVD) chamber to improve etch or deposition uniformity on a substrate disposed inside of the PVD chamber are provided herein. In some embodiments, a process chamber, includes a chamber body defining an interior volume therein; a pedestal disposed in the interior volume for supporting a substrate; a coil disposed in the interior volume above the pedestal; and an external magnet assembly, comprising: a housing coupled to the chamber body; and a plurality of magnets disposed external to the chamber body coupled to the housing and arranged asymmetrically about the chamber body.

Etch uniformity improvement for single turn internal coil PVD chamber

Magnet assemblies comprising a housing with a top plate each comprising aligned openings are described. The housing has a bottom ring and an annular wall with a plurality of openings formed in the bottom ring. The top plate is on the housing and has a plurality of openings aligned with the plurality of openings in the bottom ring of the housing. The magnet assembly may also include a non-conducting base plate and/or a conductive cover plate. Methods for using the magnet assembly and magnetic field tuning are also described.

Top magnets for decreased non-uniformity in PVD

Methods and apparatus for processing substrates are disclosed. In some embodiments, a process chamber for processing a substrate includes: a body having an interior volume and a target to be sputtered, the interior volume including a central portion and a peripheral portion; a substrate support disposed in the interior volume opposite the target and having a support surface configured to support the substrate; a collimator disposed in the interior volume between the target and the substrate support; a first magnet disposed about the body proximate the collimator; a second magnet disposed about the body above the support surface and entirely below the collimator and spaced vertically below the first magnet; and a third magnet disposed about the body and spaced vertically between the first magnet and the second magnet. The first, second, and third magnets are configured to generate respective magnetic fields to redistribute ions over the substrate.

Methods and apparatus for controlling ion fraction in physical vapor deposition processes

Physical vapor deposition methods for reducing the particulates deposited on the substrate are disclosed. The pressure during sputtering can be increased to cause agglomeration of the particulates formed in the plasma. The agglomerated particulates can be moved to an outer portion of the process chamber prior to extinguishing the plasma so that the agglomerates fall harmlessly outside of the diameter of the substrate.

Method for particle removal from wafers through plasma modification in pulsed PVD

A process kit comprises a shield and ring assembly for positioning about a substrate support in a processing chamber to reduce deposition of process deposits on internal chamber components and an overhang edge of the substrate. The shield comprises a cylindrical band having a top wall configured to surround a sputtering target and a sloped portion of a bottom wall having a substantially straight profile with gas conductance holes configured to surround the substrate support. The ring assembly comprises a cover ring having a bulb-shaped protuberance about the periphery of the ring. The bulb-shaped protuberance of the cover ring is able to block a line-of-sight between the gas conductance holes on the shield and an entrance to a chamber body cavity in the processing chamber.

Process kit geometry for particle reduction in PVD processes

Process recipe data associated a process to be performed for a substrate at a process chamber is provided as input to a trained machine learning model. A set of process recipe settings for the process that minimizes scratching on one or more surfaces of the substrate is determined based on one or more outputs of the machine learning model. The process is performed for the substrate at the process chamber in accordance with the determined set of process recipe settings.

Reducing substrate surface scratching using machine learning

A shield encircles a sputtering target that faces a substrate support in a substrate processing chamber. The shield comprises an outer band having a diameter sized to encircle the sputtering target, the outer band having upper and bottom ends, and the upper end having a tapered surface extending radially outwardly and adjacent to the sputtering target. A base plate extends radially inward from the bottom end of the outer band. An inner band joined to the base plate at least partially surrounds a peripheral edge of a substrate support. The shield can also have a heat exchanger comprising a conduit with an inlet and outlet to flow heat exchange fluid therethrough.

Shield for a substrate processing chamber

Methods and systems for reducing substrate particle scratching using machine learning are provided. A machine learning model is trained to predict process recipe settings for a substrate temperature control process to be performed for a current substrate at a manufacturing system. First training data and second training data are generated for the machine learning model. The first training data includes historical data associated with prior process recipe settings for a prior substrate temperature control process performed for a prior substrate at a prior process chamber. The second training data is associated with a historical scratch profile of one or more surfaces of the prior substrate after performance of the prior substrate temperature control process according to the prior process recipe settings. The first training data and the second training data are provided to train the machine learning model to predict which process recipe settings for the substrate temperature control process to be performed for the current substrate correspond to a target scratch profile for one or more surfaces of the current substrate.

Methods and apparatus for method for filling a feature with copper. In some embodiments, the methods include: (a) depositing a first cobalt layer via a physical vapor deposition (PVD) process atop a substrate field and atop a sidewall and a bottom surface of a feature disposed in a substrate to form a first cobalt portion atop the substrate field and a second cobalt portion atop the sidewall; (b) depositing copper atop the first cobalt portion atop the substrate field; and (c) flowing the copper disposed atop the first cobalt portion atop the substrate field over the second cobalt portion and into the feature, wherein the first cobalt portion atop the substrate field reduces the mobility of copper compared to the mobility of copper over the second cobalt portion.

Methods and apparatus for filling a feature disposed in a substrate

Embodiments of process kit shields and process chambers incorporating same are provided herein. In some embodiments a process kit configured for use in a process chamber for processing a substrate includes a shield having a cylindrical body having an upper portion and a lower portion; an adapter section configured to be supported on walls of the process chamber and having a resting surface to support the shield; and a heater coupled to the adapter section and configured to be electrically coupled to at least one power source of the processes chamber to heat the shield.

Physical vapor deposition (PVD) chamber with in situ chamber cleaning capability

Apparatus and methods for reducing and eliminating accumulation of excessive charged particles from substrate processing systems are provided herein. In some embodiments a process kit for a substrate process chamber includes: a cover ring having a body and a lip extending radially inward from the body, wherein the body has a bottom, a first wall, and a second wall, and wherein a first channel is formed between the second wall and the lip; a grounded shield having a lower inwardly extending ledge that terminates in an upwardly extending portion configured to interface with the first channel of the cover ring; and a bias power receiver coupled to the body and extending through an opening in the grounded shield.

Biased cover ring for a substrate processing system

Methods and apparatus for controlling the ion fraction in physical vapor deposition processes are disclosed. In some embodiments, a process chamber for processing a substrate having a given diameter includes: an interior volume and a target to be sputtered, the interior volume including a central portion and a peripheral portion; a rotatable magnetron above the target to form an annular plasma in the peripheral portion; a substrate support disposed in the interior volume to support a substrate having the given diameter; a first set of magnets disposed about the body to form substantially vertical magnetic field lines in the peripheral portion; a second set of magnets disposed about the body and above the substrate support to form magnetic field lines directed toward a center of the support surface; a first power source to electrically bias the target; and a second power source to electrically bias the substrate support.

Growing community of inventors

Oakland, CA, United States of America

Adolph Miller Allen