Novellus Systems Incorporated

Lam Research Corporation

Bart K Van Schravendijk

Shankar Swaminathan

Dennis Michael Hausmann

Mandyam Sriram

Adrien Lavoie

Jon Henri

Hu Kang

Pramod Subramonium

Michal Danek

Ming Chu Li

David Cohen

Ramesh Chandrasekharan

Jun Qian

George Andrew Antonelli

Easwar Srinivasan

Thomas W Mountsier

Sirish K Reddy

Nader Shamma

Patrick G Breiling

Keith Fox

Andrew John McKerrow

Adrien LaVoie

Jennifer Leigh Petraglia

Dong Niu

Vishwanathan Rangarajan

Sesha Varadarajan

John B Alexy

Chunhai Ji

Antonio Xavier

Jason Daejin Park

Joseph Lindsey Womack

Jason Dirk Haverkamp

Wanki Kim

Thomas G Jewell

Kirthi Kattige

Tom Dorsh

Arun Keshavamurthy

Bryan Schlief

Naohiro Shoda

A semiconductor substrate processing apparatus for processing semiconductor substrates includes showerhead module delivering process gas through a faceplate having gas passages therethrough from the process gas source to a processing zone of the processing apparatus wherein individual semiconductor substrates are processed. The showerhead module comprises a gas delivery conduit in fluid communication with a cavity at a lower end thereof, a baffle arrangement in the gas delivery conduit and the cavity, and a blocker plate in the cavity disposed below the baffle arrangement. The baffle arrangement comprises baffles which divide process gas flowing through the gas delivery conduit into center, inner annular, and outer annular flow streams. The center flow stream exits the baffle arrangement above a central portion of the faceplate, the inner annular flow stream exits the baffle arrangement above an inner annular region of the faceplate, and the outer annular flow stream exits the baffle arrangement above an outer annular region of the faceplate.

Semiconductor substrate processing apparatus including uniformity baffles

An apparatus for depositing film stacks in-situ (i.e., without a vacuum break or air exposure) are described. In one example, a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition apparatus configured to deposit a plurality of film layers on a substrate without exposing the substrate to a vacuum break between film deposition phases, is provided. The apparatus includes a process chamber, a plasma source and a controller configured to control the plasma source to generate reactant radicals using a particular reactant gas mixture during the particular deposition phase, and sustain the plasma during a transition from the particular reactant gas mixture supplied during the particular deposition phase to a different reactant gas mixture supplied during a different deposition phase.

PECVD apparatus for in-situ deposition of film stacks

Methods and apparatuses for multiple patterning using image reversal are provided. The methods may include depositing gap-fill ashable hardmasks using a deposition-etch-ash method to fill gaps in a pattern of a semiconductor substrate and eliminating spacer etching steps using a single-etch planarization method. Such methods may be performed for double patterning, multiple patterning, and two dimensional patterning techniques in semiconductor fabrication.

Method for forming a mask by etching conformal film on patterned ashable hardmask

A method and apparatus for conformally depositing a dielectric oxide in high aspect ratio gaps in a substrate is disclosed. A substrate is provided with one or more gaps into a reaction chamber where each gap has a depth to width aspect ratio of greater than about 5:1. A first dielectric oxide layer is deposited in the one or more gaps by CFD. A portion of the first dielectric oxide layer is etched using a plasma etch, where etching the portion of the first dielectric oxide layer occurs at a faster rate near a top surface than near a bottom surface of each gap so that the first dielectric oxide layer has a tapered profile from the top surface to the bottom surface of each gap. A second dielectric oxide layer is deposited in the one or more gaps over the first dielectric oxide layer via CFD.

Conformal film deposition for gapfill

Provided herein are methods and apparatus for filling one or more gaps on a semiconductor substrate. The disclosed embodiments are especially useful for forming seam-free, void-free fill in both narrow and wide features. The methods may be performed without any intervening etching operations to achieve a single step deposition. In various implementations, a first operation is performed using a novel PEALD fill mechanism to fill narrow gaps and line wide gaps. A second operation may be performed using PECVD methods to continue filling the wide gaps.

Gapfill of variable aspect ratio features with a composite PEALD and PECVD method

Methods of depositing a film on a substrate surface include surface mediated reactions in which a film is grown over one or more cycles of reactant adsorption and reaction. In one aspect, the method is characterized by the following operations: (a) exposing the substrate surface to a first reactant in vapor phase under conditions allowing the first reactant to adsorb onto the substrate surface; (b) exposing the substrate surface to a second reactant in vapor phase while the first reactant is adsorbed on the substrate surface; and (c) exposing the substrate surface to plasma to drive a reaction between the first and second reactants adsorbed on the substrate surface to form the film.

Plasma activated conformal film deposition

Methods of depositing a film on a substrate surface include surface mediated reactions in which a film is grown over one or more cycles of reactant adsorption and reaction. In one aspect, the method is characterized by intermittent delivery of dopant species to the film between the cycles of adsorption and reaction.

Plasma activated conformal dielectric film deposition

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Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Bart K Van Schravendijk