Applied Materials, Inc.

Applied Material, Inc.

Bhaskar Kumar

Ganesh Balasubramanian

Vivek Bharat Shah

Anup Kumar Singh

Sidharth Bhatia

Vinayak Vishwanath Hassan

Kaushik Comandoor Alayavalli

Robert Jan Visser

Deenesh Padhi

Pramit Manna

Rick Kustra

Kallol Bera

Alexandros T Demos

He Ren

Kaushal Kishore Singh

Prashanth Kothnur

Edward P Hammond

Krishna Nittala

Akshay Dhanakshirur

Sathya Swaroop Ganta

Changgong Wang

Jiheng Zhao

Priyanka Dash

Andrew Nguyen

Juan Carlos Rocha-Alvarez

Mehul B Naik

Bok Hoen Kim

Karthik Janakiraman

Dieter Haas

Jay D Pinson, Ii

Amir Hamed Al-Bayati

Prerna Sonthalia Goradia

Timothy Joseph Franklin

Canfeng Lai

Omkaram Nalamasu

Shuran Sheng

Geetika Bajaj

Srinivas Guggilla

Badri N Ramamurthi

Ranga Rao Arnepalli

Tapash Chakraborty

Yong Kee Chae

Gaurav Saraf

Stephen Charles Garner

Jui-Yuan Hsu

Stefan Klein

Srikant Rao

Claire J Carmalt

Sanjayan Sathasivam

Christopher Stuart Blackman

Meng Cai

Sowjanya Musunuru

A lid for a process chamber includes a plate having a first surface and a second surface opposite the first surface. The first surface has a recess and a seal groove formed in the first surface and surrounding the recess. The lid further includes an array of holes extending from the recess to the second surface.

Showerhead design to control stray deposition

Exemplary methods of manufacturing a semiconductor cover wafer may include sintering aluminum nitride particles into a substrate characterized by a thickness and characterized by a disc shape. The methods may include grinding a surface of the substrate to reduce the thickness to less than or about 2 mm. The methods may include polishing the surface of the substrate to reduce a roughness. The methods may include annealing the substrate at a temperature of greater than or about 800° C. for a time period of greater than or about 60 minutes.

Stress treatments for cover wafers

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to methods for cleaning a chamber comprising introducing a gas to a processing volume of the chamber, providing a first radiofrequency (RF) power having a first frequency of about 40 MHz or greater to a lid of the chamber, providing a second RF power having a second frequency to an electrode disposed in a substrate support within the processing volume, and removing at least a portion of a film disposed on a surface of a chamber component of the chamber. The second frequency is about 10 MHz to about 20 MHz.

Method of using dual frequency RF power in a process chamber

The present disclosure relates to methods and systems for chucking in substrate processing chambers. In one implementation, a method of chucking one or more substrates in a substrate processing chamber includes applying a chucking voltage to a pedestal. A substrate is disposed on a support surface of the pedestal. The method also includes ramping the chucking voltage from the applied voltage, detecting an impedance shift while ramping the chucking voltage, determining a corresponding chucking voltage at which the impedance shift occurs, and determining a refined chucking voltage based on the impedance shift and the corresponding chucking voltage.

Chucking process and system for substrate processing chambers

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to semiconductor processing. More specifically, embodiments of the present disclosure relate to methods for seasoning one or more components of a process chamber. In at least one embodiment, a method for seasoning a process chamber includes depositing a seasoning film onto a component of the process chamber at a chamber pressure of about 4 mTorr to about 20 mTorr and a temperature below about 200° C. or about 200° C. to about 400° C. The method includes depositing a deposition film onto the seasoning film. In at least one embodiment, a method includes introducing a nitrogen-containing gas to the seasoning film to form a nitrogen-treated seasoning film. Introducing the nitrogen-containing gas to the seasoning film is performed before depositing the deposition film onto the seasoning film.

Methods of seasoning process chambers

Embodiments described herein relate to magnetic and electromagnetic systems and a method for controlling the density profile of plasma generated in a process volume of a PECVD chamber to affect deposition profile of a film on a substrate and/or facilitate chamber cleaning after processing. In one embodiment, a system is disclosed that includes a rotational magnetic housing disposed about an exterior sidewall of a chamber. The rotational magnetic housing includes a plurality of magnets coupled to a sleeve that are configured to travel in a circular path when the rotational magnetic housing is rotated around the chamber, and a plurality of shunt doors movably disposed between the chamber and the sleeve, wherein each of the shunt doors are configured to move relative to the magnets.

Shunt door for magnets in plasma process chamber

Implementations of the present disclosure generally relate to hardmask films and methods for depositing hardmask films. More particularly, implementations of the present disclosure generally relate to tungsten carbide hardmask films and processes for depositing tungsten carbide hardmask films. In one implementation, a method of forming a tungsten carbide film is provided. The method comprises forming a tungsten carbide initiation layer on a silicon-containing surface of a substrate at a first deposition rate. The method further comprises forming a tungsten carbide film on the tungsten carbide initiation layer at a second deposition rate, wherein the second deposition rate is greater than the first deposition rate.

Techniques to improve adhesion and defects for tungsten carbide film

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to methods of depositing carbon film layers greater than 3,000 &#x212b; in thickness over a substrate and surface of a lid of a chamber using dual frequency, top, sidewall and bottom sources. The method includes introducing a gas to a processing volume of a chamber. A first radiofrequency (RF) power is provided having a first frequency of about 40 MHz or greater to a lid of the chamber. A second RF power is provided having a second frequency to a bias electrode disposed in a substrate support within the processing volume. The second frequency is about 10 MHz to about 40 MHz. An additional third RF power is provided having lower frequency of about 400 kHz to about 2 MHz to the bias electrode.

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to methods of forming hardmasks. Embodiments described herein enable, e.g., formation of carbon-containing hardmasks having reduced film stress. In an embodiment, a method of processing a substrate is provided. The method includes positioning a substrate in a processing volume of a processing chamber and depositing a diamond-like carbon (DLC) layer on the substrate. After depositing the DLC layer, the film stress is reduced by performing a plasma treatment, wherein the plasma treatment comprises applying a radio frequency (RF) bias power of about 100 W to about 10,000 W.

Methods of forming hardmasks

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a method and an apparatus for monitoring plasma behavior inside a plasma processing chamber. In one example, a method for monitoring plasma behavior includes acquiring at least one image of a plasma, and determining a plasma parameter based on the at least one image.

Plasma parameters and skew characterization by high speed imaging

Embodiments disclosed herein may include a heater pedestal. In an embodiment, the heater pedestal may comprise a heater pedestal body and a conductive mesh embedded in the heater pedestal. In an embodiment, the conductive mesh is electrically coupled to a voltage source In an embodiment, the heater pedestal may further comprise a support surface on the heater pedestal body. In an embodiment, the support surface comprises a plurality of pillars extending out from the heater pedestal body and arranged in concentric rings. In an embodiment pillars in an outermost concentric ring have a height that is greater than a height of pillars in an innermost concentric ring.

Graded dimple height pattern on heater for lower backside damage and low chucking voltage

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to apparatuses for reducing particle contamination on substrates in a plasma processing chamber. In one or more embodiments, an edge ring is provided and includes a top surface, a bottom surface opposite the top surface and extending radially outward, an outer vertical wall extending between and connected to the top surface and the bottom surface, an inner vertical wall opposite the outer vertical wall, an inner lip extending radially inward from the inner vertical wall, and an inner step disposed between and connected to the inner wall and the bottom surface. During processing, the edge ring shifts the high plasma density zone away from the edge area of the substrate to avoid depositing particles on the substrate when the plasma is de-energized.

Plasma density control on substrate edge

A method and apparatus for operating a plasma processing chamber includes performing a plasma process at a process pressure and a pressure power to generate a plasma. A first ramping-down stage starts in which the process power and the process pressure are ramped down substantially simultaneously to an intermediate power level and an intermediate pressure level, respectively. The intermediate power level and intermediate pressure level are preselected so as to raise a plasma sheath boundary above a threshold height from a surface of a substrate. A purge gas is flowed from a showerhead assembly at a sufficiently high rate to sweep away contaminant particles trapped in the plasma such that one or more contaminant particles move outwardly of an edge of the substrate. A second ramping-down stage starts where the intermediate power level and the intermediate pressure level decline to a zero level and a base pressure, respectively.

Apparatus and methods for removing contaminant particles in a plasma process

Apparatus and methods for generating a flow of radicals are provided. An ion blocker is positioned a distance from a faceplate of a remote plasma source. The ion blocker has openings to allow the plasma to flow through. The ion blocker is polarized relative to a showerhead positioned on an opposite side of the ion blocker so that there are substantially no plasma gas ions passing through the showerhead.

Remote capacitively coupled plasma source with improved ion blocker

Growing community of inventors

Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Bhaskar Kumar