Lam Research Corporation

Novellus Systems Incorporated

Bo Gong

Bhadri N Varadarajan

Zhe Gui

Huatan Qiu

Geoffrey Hohn

Guangbi Yuan

Rachel E Batzer

Fengyuan Lai

Patrick G Breiling

Taide Tan

Will Schlosser

Chen-Hua Hsu

Anand Chandrashekar

Leonard Wai Fung Kho

Curtis Warren Bailey

Gang Liu

Damodar Rajaram Shanbhag

Andrew H Breninger

Krishna Birru

Tony Kaushal

Rohit Khare

Thadeous Bamford

William Schlosser

Bart Jan Van Schravendijk

Matthew Scott Weimer

Ieva Narkeviciute

Andrew John McKerrow

Galbokka Hewage Layan Savithra

A doped or undoped silicon carbide film can be deposited using a remote plasma chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique. One or more silicon-containing precursors are provided to a reaction chamber. Radical species, such as hydrogen radical species, are provided in a substantially low energy state or ground state and interact with the one or more silicon-containing precursors to deposit the silicon carbide film. A co-reactant may be flowed with the one or more silicon-containing precursors, where the co-reactant can be a depositing additive or a non-depositing additive to increase step coverage of the silicon carbide film.

Conformal deposition of silicon carbide films using heterogeneous precursor interaction

A substrate processing system includes a first chamber including a substrate support. A showerhead is arranged above the first chamber and is configured to filter ions and deliver radicals from a plasma source to the first chamber. The showerhead includes a heat transfer fluid plenum, a secondary gas plenum including an inlet to receive secondary gas and a plurality of secondary gas injectors to inject the secondary gas into the first chamber, and a plurality of through holes passing through the showerhead. The through holes are not in fluid communication with the heat transfer fluid plenum or the secondary gas plenum.

Integrated showerhead with thermal control for delivering radical and precursor gas to a downstream chamber to enable remote plasma film deposition

A doped or undoped silicon carbide film can be deposited using a remote plasma chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique. One or more silicon-containing precursors are provided to a reaction chamber. Radical species, such as hydrogen radical species, are provided in a substantially low energy state or ground state and interact with the one or more silicon-containing precursors to deposit the silicon carbide film. A co-reactant may be flowed with the one or more silicon-containing precursors, where the co-reactant is a carbon-containing precursor and each silicon-containing precursor is a silane-based precursor with at least a silicon atom having two or more hydrogen atoms bonded to the silicon atom.

Remote plasma based deposition of silicon carbide films using silicon-containing and carbon-containing precursors

A doped or undoped silicon carbide (SiCON) film can be deposited in one or more features of a substrate for gapfill. After a first thickness of the doped or undoped silicon carbide film is deposited in the one or more features, the doped or undoped silicon carbide film is exposed to a remote hydrogen plasma under conditions that cause a size of an opening near a top surface of each of the one or more features to increase, where the conditions can be controlled by controlling treatment time, treatment frequency, treatment power, and/or remote plasma gas composition. Operations of depositing additional thicknesses of silicon carbide film and performing a remote hydrogen plasma treatment are repeated to at least substantially fill the one or more features. Various time intervals between deposition and plasma treatment may be added to modulate gapfill performance.

Doped or undoped silicon carbide deposition and remote hydrogen plasma exposure for gapfill

Disclosed are methods and systems for providing silicon carbide films. A layer of silicon carbide can be provided under process conditions that employ one or more silicon-containing precursors that have one or more silicon-hydrogen bonds and/or silicon-silicon bonds. The silicon-containing precursors may also have one or more silicon-oxygen bonds and/or silicon-carbon bonds. One or more radical species in a substantially low energy state can react with the silicon-containing precursors to form the silicon carbide film. The one or more radical species can be formed in a remote plasma source.

Conformal deposition of silicon carbide films

Forming a protective coating ex situ in an atomic layer deposition process to coat one or more chamber components subsequently installed in a reaction chamber provides a number of benefits over more conventional coating methods such as in situ deposition of an undercoat. In certain cases the protective coating may have a particular composition such as aluminum oxide, aluminum fluoride, aluminum nitride, yttrium oxide, and/or yttrium fluoride. The protective coating may help reduce contamination on wafers processed using the coated chamber component. Further, the protective coating may act to stabilize the processing conditions within the reaction chamber, thereby achieving very stable/uniform processing results over the course of processing many batches of wafers, and minimizing radical loss. Also described are a number of techniques that may be used to restore the protective coating after the coated chamber component is used to process semiconductor wafers.

Ex situ coating of chamber components for semiconductor processing

Certain embodiments herein relate to an apparatus used for remote plasma processing. In various embodiments, the apparatus includes a reaction chamber that is conditioned by forming a low recombination material coating on interior chamber surfaces. The low recombination material helps minimize the degree of radical recombination that occurs when the reaction chamber is used to process substrates. During processing on substrates, the low recombination material may become covered by relatively higher recombination material (e.g., as a byproduct of the substrate processing), which results in a decrease in the amount of radicals available to process the substrate over time. The low recombination material coating may be reconditioned through exposure to an oxidizing plasma, which acts to reform the low recombination material coating. The reconditioning process may occur periodically as additional processing occurs on substrates. The apparatus may be configured to cause formation and reconditioning of the low recombination material coating.

Minimizing radical recombination using ALD silicon oxide surface coating with intermittent restoration plasma

In some examples, a method for conditioning a wafer processing chamber comprises setting a pressure in the chamber to a predetermined pressure range, setting a temperature of the chamber to a predetermined temperature, and supplying a process gas mixture to a gas distribution device within the chamber. A plasma is struck within the chamber and a condition in the chamber is monitored. Based on a detection of the monitored condition meeting or transgressing a threshold value, a chamber conditioning operation is implemented. The chamber conditioning operation may include depositing a preconditioning film onto an internal surface of the chamber, depositing a silicon oxycarbide (SiCO) film onto the preconditioning film, and depositing a protective layer onto the SiCO film.

Oxidation resistant protective layer in chamber conditioning

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Sherwood, OR, United States of America

Bo Gong