Applied Materials, Inc.

Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

Other

International Business Machines Corporation

Applied Material, Inc.

Alexandros T Demos

Kang Sub Yim

Kelvin Chan

Juan Carlos Rocha-Alvarez

Hichem M'Saad

Bo Xie

Li-Qun Xia

Khaled A Elsheref

Sanjeev Baluja

Timothy Weidman

Thomas E Nowak

Derek R Witty

Deenesh Padhi

Scott Jeffrey Weigel

Jun Zhao

Robert Parkash Mandal

Nikolaos Bekiaris

Michael P Nault

Mehul B Naik

Zhenjiang Cui

Scott A Hendrickson

Sure Ngo

Mahendra Chhabra

He Ren

Hari K Ponnekanti

Nagarajan Rajagopalan

Rick J Roberts

James Edward MacDougall

Helen R Armer

Sang H Ahn

Dustin Wenpin Ho

Taewan Kim

Daemian Raj

Hareesh Thridandam

Vu Ngoc Tran Nguyen

Lee Arthur Senecal

Priyanka Dash

Lester A D'Cruz

Abhijit Basu Mallick

Tetsuya Ishikawa

Visweswaren Sivaramakrishnan

Bok Hoen Kim

Girish Anant Dixit

Farhad K Moghadam

Amir Hamed Al-Bayati

Mukund Srinivasan

Yi Zheng

Seon-Mee Cho

Mei-Yee Shek

Bhaskar Kumar

Dale R Dubois

Yunfeng Lu

Abhijit Ashok Kangude

Daping Yao

Michio Aruga

Francimar Campana Schmitt

Kaveh F Niazi

Kevin Ray Heier

Feng Gao

Sang In Yi

Josphine J Chang

Inna Turevsky

Jeff S Cheung

Pendar Ardalan

Lipan Li

Daniel C Edelstein

Alfred Grill

Takashi Shimizu

Stephen McConnell Gates

Karthik Janakiraman

Mihaela A Balseanu

Michael Santiago Cox

Jianhua Zhou

William R Livesay

Mandyam Sriram

Reza Arghavani

Tom K Cho

Yihong Chen

Darryl D Restaino

Tzu-Fang Huang

Steven E Molis

Srinivas Guggilla

Xiaolan Ba

Cheng Pan

Weifeng Ye

Meiyee Shek

Wen H Zhu

Yu Jin

Yuri Trachuk

Josephine J Chang

Ashish Shah

Meiyee (Maggie Le) Shek

Tsutomu Kiyohara

James Edward Mac Dougall

Steven Reiter

Jin Xu

Josephine Juhwei Liu

Naoyuki Iwasaki

Hichem M'Sadd

Josephine Ju-Hwei Chang Liu

An apparatus and method for processing a substrate in a processing system containing a deposition chamber, a treatment chamber, and an isolation region, separating the deposition chamber from the treatment is described herein. The deposition chamber deposits a film on a substrate. The treatment chamber receives the substrate from the deposition chamber and alters the film deposited in the deposition chamber with a film property altering device. Processing systems and methods are provided in accordance with the above embodiment and other embodiments.

Processing system containing an isolation region separating a deposition chamber from a treatment chamber

Embodiments described herein provide a method for sealing a porous low-k dielectric film. The method includes forming a sealing layer on the porous low-k dielectric film using a cyclic process. The cyclic process includes repeating a sequence of depositing a sealing layer on the porous low-k dielectric film and treating the sealing layer until the sealing layer achieves a predetermined thickness. The treating of each intermediate sealing layer generates more reactive sites on the surface of each intermediate sealing layer, which improves the quality of the resulting sealing layer.

UV assisted silylation for porous low-k film sealing

A low-k dielectric porous silicon oxycarbon layer is formed within an integrated circuit. In one embodiment, a porogen and bulk layer containing silicon oxycarbon layer is deposited, the porogens are selectively removed from the formed layer without simultaneously cross-linking the bulk layer, and then the bulk layer material is cross-linked. In other embodiments, multiple silicon oxycarbon sublayers are deposited, porogens from each sub-layer are selectively removed without simultaneously cross-linking the bulk material of the sub-layer, and the sub-layers are cross-linked separately.

Forming a low-k dielectric layer with reduced dielectric constant and strengthened mechanical properties

A method for sealing porous low-k dielectric films is provided. The method comprises exposing a substrate to UV radiation and a first reactive gas, wherein the substrate has an open feature defined therein, the open feature defined by a porous low-k dielectric layer and a conductive material, wherein the porous low-k dielectric layer is a silicon and carbon containing material and selectively forming a pore sealing layer in the open feature on exposed surfaces of the porous low-k dielectric layer using UV assisted photochemical vapor deposition.

Interconnect integration for sidewall pore seal and via cleanliness

Embodiments described herein generally relate to methods for processing a dielectric film on a substrate with UV energy. In one embodiment, a precursor film is deposited on the substrate, and the precursor film includes a plurality of porogen molecules. The precursor film is first exposed to UV energy at a first temperature to initiate a cross-linking process. After a first predetermined time, the temperature of the precursor film is increased to a second temperature for a second predetermined time to remove porogen molecules and to continue the cross-linking process. The resulting film is a porous low-k dielectric film having improved elastic modulus and hardness.

Enhancement of modulus and hardness for UV-cured ultra low-k dielectric films

A method of forming features in a dielectric layer is described. A via, trench or a dual-damascene structure may be present in the dielectric layer prior to depositing a conformal aluminum nitride layer. The conformal aluminum nitride layer is configured to serve as a barrier to prevent diffusion across the barrier. The methods of forming the aluminum nitride layer involve the alternating exposure to two precursor treatments (like ALD) to achieve high conformality. The high conformality of the aluminum nitride barrier layer enables the thickness to be reduced and the effective conductivity of the subsequent gapfill metal layer to be increased.

Aluminum nitride barrier layer

Implementations described herein generally relate to the formation of a silicon and aluminum containing layer. Methods described herein can include positioning a substrate in a process region of a process chamber; delivering a process gas to the process region, the process gas comprising an aluminum-containing gas and a silicon-containing gas; activating a reactant gas comprising a nitrogen-containing gas, a hydrogen containing gas, or combinations thereof; delivering the reactant gas to the process gas to create a deposition gas that deposits a silicon and aluminum containing layer on the substrate; and purging the process region. The above elements can be performed one or more times to deposit an etch stop stack.

Ultra-thin dielectric diffusion barrier and etch stop layer for advanced interconnect applications

Embodiments described herein generally relate to the formation of a UV compatible barrier stack. Methods described herein can include delivering a process gas to a substrate positioned in a process chamber. The process gas can be activated to form an activated process gas, the activated process gas forming a barrier layer on a surface of the substrate, the barrier layer comprising silicon, carbon and nitrogen. The activated process gas can then be purged from the process chamber. An activated nitrogen-containing gas can be delivered to the barrier layer, the activated nitrogen-containing gas having a N:NHratio of greater than about 1:1. The activated nitrogen-containing gas can then be purged from the process chamber. The above elements can be performed one or more times to deposit the barrier stack.

Enhancing electrical property and UV compatibility of ultrathin blok barrier film

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

Implementations described herein generally relate to methods for depositing etch stop layers, such as AlN layers, using UV assisted CVD. Methods disclosed herein generally include positioning a substrate in a process region of a process chamber; delivering an aluminum-containing precursor to the process region, the aluminum-containing precursor depositing an aluminum species onto the substrate; purging the process region of aluminum-containing precursor using an inert gas; delivering a UV responsive nitrogen-containing precursor to the process region, the UV responsive nitrogen-containing gas being activated using UV radiation to create nitrogen radicals, the nitrogen radicals reacting with the aluminum species to form an AlN layer; and purging the process region of UV responsive nitrogen-containing precursor using an inert gas.

UV assisted CVD AlN film for BEOL etch stop application

Embodiments of the disclosure generally provide multi-layer dielectric stack configurations that are resistant to plasma damage. Methods are disclosed for the deposition of thin protective low dielectric constant layers upon bulk low dielectric constant layers to create the layer stack. As a result, the dielectric constant of the multi-layer stack is unchanged during and after plasma processing.

Multi-layer dielectric stack for plasma damage protection

A method and apparatus for depositing a low K dielectric film with one or more features is disclosed herein. A method of forming a dielectric layer can include positioning a substrate in a processing chamber, delivering a deposition gas to the processing chamber, depositing a dense organosilicon layer using the deposition gas on the surface of the substrate, the dense organosilicon layer comprising a porogenic carbon, transferring a pattern into the dense organosilicon layer, forming a pore-forming plasma from a reactant gas, exposing the dense organosilicon layer to the pore-forming plasma to create a porous organosilicon layer, wherein the pore-forming plasma removes at least a portion of the porogenic carbon and exposing the porous organosilicon layer to a desiccating post treatment.

Post treatment for dielectric constant reduction with pore generation on low K dielectric films

Methods for reducing the k value of a layer using air gaps and devices produced by said methods are disclosed herein. Methods disclosed herein can include depositing a carbon containing stack over one or more features in a substrate, depositing a porous dielectric layer over the carbon containing stack, and curing the substrate to volatilize the carbon containing stack. The resulting device includes a substrate with one or more features formed therein, a porous dielectric layer formed over the features with an air gap formed in the features.

Air-gap structure formation with ultra low-k dielectric layer on PECVD low-k chamber

Embodiments of the present invention provide a film stack and method for depositing an adhesive layer for a low dielectric constant bulk layer without the need for an initiation layer. A film stack for use in a semiconductor device comprises of a dual layer low-K dielectric deposited directly on an underlying layer. The dual low-K dielectric consists of an adhesive layer deposited without a carbon free initiation layer.

Adhesion layer to minimize dielectric constant increase with good adhesion strength in a PECVD process

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Fremont, CA, United States of America

Alexandros T Demos