Applied Materials, Inc.

Anjana M Patel

Abdul Aziz Khaja

Tuan Anh Nguyen

Ganesh Balasubramanian

Nitin K Ingle

Kwangduk Douglas Lee

Jingmei Liang

Sidharth Bhatia

Jeongmin Lee

Ratsamee Limdulpaiboon

Ellie Y Yieh

Anchuan Wang

Shankar Venkataraman

Amit Kumar Bansal

Karthik Janakiraman

Young Seen Lee

Prashant Kumar Kulshreshtha

Vinay K Prabhakar

Zhong Qiang Hua

Sarah Michelle Bobek

Hemant P Mungekar

Song-Moon Suh

Sanjay G Kamath

Manoj Vellaikal

Sudhir R Gondhalekar

Sungwon Ha

Sukwon Hong

Hien-Minh Huu Le

Viren Kalsekar

Hidehiro Kojiri

Bikram Kapoor

Dong Hyung Lee

Liangfa Hu

Byung Seok Kwon

Zhili Zuo

Satya Teja Babu Thokachichu

Ruiyun Huang

Exemplary semiconductor processing systems may include a chamber body comprising sidewalls and a base. The systems may include a substrate support extending through the base of the chamber body. The substrate support may include a support platen and a stem. The systems may include a baffle extending about a stem of the substrate support. The baffle may define one or more apertures through the baffle. The systems may include a fluid source fluidly coupled with the chamber body at an access between the stem of the substrate support and the baffle.

Systems and methods for deposition residue control

Embodiments described herein generally relate to apparatuses for processing a substrate. In one or more embodiments, a heater support kit includes a heater assembly contains a heater plate having an upper surface and a lower surface, a chuck ring disposed on at least a portion of the upper surface of the heater plate, a heater arm assembly contains a heater arm and supporting the heater assembly, and a heater support plate disposed between the heater plate and the heater arm and in contact with at least a portion of the lower surface of the heater plate.

Heater support kit for bevel etch chamber

Exemplary methods of treating a chamber may include delivering a cleaning precursor to a remote plasma unit. The methods may include forming a plasma of the cleaning precursor. The methods may include delivering plasma effluents of the cleaning precursor to a processing region of a semiconductor processing chamber. The processing region may be defined by one or more chamber components. The one or more chamber components may include an oxide coating. The methods may include halting delivery of the plasma effluents. The methods may include treating the oxide coating with a hydrogen-containing material delivered to the processing region subsequent halting delivery of the plasma effluents.

Treatment for high-temperature cleans

The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for reducing the formation of hardware residue and minimizing secondary plasma formation during substrate processing in a process chamber. The process chamber may include a gas distribution member configured to flow a first gas into a process volume and generate a plasma therefrom. A second gas is supplied into a lower region of the process volume. Further, an exhaust port is disposed in the lower region to remove excess gases or by-products from the process volume during or after processing.

Methods of reducing chamber residues

A method of cleaning a remote plasma source includes supplying a first cycle of one or more first cleaning gases to a remote plasma source. The method includes supplying a second cycle of one or more second cleaning gases to the remote plasma source. The method includes supplying one or more cooling fluids to one or more cooling conduits coupled with the remote plasma source.

RPS defect reduction by cyclic clean induced RPS cooling

Embodiments described herein relate to methods for determining a cleaning endpoint. A first plasma cleaning process may be performed in a clean chamber environment to determine a clean time function defined by a first slope. A second plasma cleaning process may be performed in an unclean chamber environment to determine a clean time function defined by a second slope. The first and second slope may be compared to determine a clean endpoint time.

In-situ etch rate determination for chamber clean endpoint

A method of forming a silicon oxide layer is described. The method first deposits a silicon-nitrogen-and-hydrogen-containing (polysilazane) film by radical-component chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The polysilazane film is converted to silicon oxide by exposing the polysilazane film to humidity at low substrate temperature. The polysilazane film may also be dipped in a liquid having both oxygen and hydrogen, such as water, hydrogen peroxide and or ammonium hydroxide. These conversion techniques may be used separately or in a sequential combination. Conversion techniques described herein hasten conversion, produce manufacturing-worthy films and remove the requirement of a high temperature oxidation treatment. An ozone treatment may precede the conversion technique(s).

Low temperature silicon oxide conversion

A remote plasma process for removing unwanted deposition build-up from one or more interior surfaces of a substrate processing chamber after processing a substrate disposed in the substrate processing chamber. In one embodiment, the substrate is transferred out of the substrate processing chamber and a flow of a fluorine-containing etchant gas is introduced into a remote plasma source where reactive species are formed. A continuous flow of the reactive species from the remote plasmas source to the substrate processing chamber is generated while a cycle of high and low pressure clean steps is repeated. During the high pressure clean step, reactive species are flown into the substrate processing chamber while pressure within the substrate processing chamber is maintained between 4-15 Torr. During the low pressure clean step, reactive species are flown into the substrate processing chamber while reducing the pressure of the substrate processing chamber by at least 50 percent of a high pressure reached in the high pressure clean step.

Remote plasma clean process with cycled high and low pressure clean steps

The formation of a gap-filling silicon oxide layer with reduced tendency towards cracking is described. The deposition involves the formation of a flowable silicon-containing layer which facilitates the filling of trenches. Subsequent processing at high substrate temperature causes less cracking in the dielectric film than flowable films formed in accordance with methods in the prior art. A compressive liner layer deposited prior to the formation of the gap-filling silicon oxide layer is described and reduces the tendency for the subsequently deposited film to crack. A compressive capping layer deposited after a flowable silicon-containing layer has also been determined to reduce cracking. Compressive liner layers and compressive capping layers can be used alone or in combination to reduce and often eliminate cracking. Compressive capping layers in disclosed embodiments have additionally been determined to enable an underlying layer of silicon nitride to be transformed into a silicon oxide layer.

Stress management for tensile films

A film is deposited on a substrate disposed in a substrate processing chamber. The substrate has a trench formed between adjacent raised surfaces. A first portion of the film is deposited over the substrate from a first gaseous mixture flowed into the process chamber by chemical-vapor deposition. Thereafter, the first portion is etched by flowing an etchant gas having a halogen precursor, a hydrogen precursor, and an oxygen precursor into the process chamber. Thereafter, a second portion of the film is deposited over the substrate from a second gaseous mixture flowed into the processing chamber by chemical-vapor deposition.

Reactive ion etching for semiconductor device feature topography modification

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Anjana M Patel