Lam Research Corporation

Douglas Walter Agnew

Joseph Abel

Ian John Curtin

Awnish Gupta

Adrien Lavoie

Purushottam Kumar

Bart Jan Van Schravendijk

Ishtak Karim

Jeremy David Fields

Frank Loren Pasquale

Pulkit Agarwal

Ravi Kumar

Michael Philip Roberts

Dustin Zachary Austin

Eli Jeon

Tengfei Miao

Daniel Boatright

William Laurence McDaniel

Arun Anandhan Duraisamy

Jonathan Grant Baker

A method comprising: providing a substrate in a processing station comprising a substrate support and a showerhead, the substrate comprising a gap to be filled; and depositing silicon-containing film in the gap by a plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) process comprising multiple cycles of operations (a)-(d): (a) a dose operation comprising flowing a silicon-containing precursor into the processing station via the showerhead to allow the silicon-containing precursor to adsorb onto the substrate; (b) after (a), flowing a purge gas into the processing station; (c) after (b), exposing the substrate to plasma species to react with the adsorbed silicon-containing precursor; and (d) after (c), flowing a purge gas into the processing station, wherein the silicon-containing precursor continues to flow into the processing station during at least (b).

Plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition of silicon-containing films

Methods of providing control of film properties during atomic layer deposition using intermittent plasma treatment in-situ are provided herein. Methods include modulating gas flow rate ratios used to generate plasma during intermittent plasma treatment, toggling plasma power, and modulating chamber pressure.

In-situ control of film properties during atomic layer deposition

Methods of forming air gaps in hole and trench structures are disclosed. The methods may be used to form buried voids, i.e., voids for which the top is below the top of the adjacent features. The methods include inhibition of the hole or trench structures and selective deposition at the top of the structure forming an air gap within the structures. In some embodiments, the methods are to reduce intra-level capacitance in semiconductor devices.

Reducing intralevel capacitance in semiconductor devices

The present disclosure relates to a system for a semiconductor processing. The system includes a semiconductor processing chamber having a plurality of processing stations, a plurality of manifold trunks, a plurality of valves, and a plurality of fluid manifolds. Each manifold trunk includes an outlet, a common flowpath, a plurality of trunk inlets, a plurality of orifices, and a plurality of valve interfaces.

Apparatuses for uniform fluid delivery in a multi-station semiconductor processing chamber

Methods and apparatuses for modifying a wafer surface using an organosilicon precursor are provided herein. The wafer surface is dosed with the organosilicon precursor following deposition of a dielectric material by an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process. In some implementations, the dielectric layer is made of silicon oxide. Dosing the wafer surface with the organosilicon precursor may occur in the same chamber as the ALD process. The organosilicon precursor may modify the wafer surface to increase its hydrophobicity so that photoresist adhesion is improved on the wafer surface. In some implementations, the wafer surface may be exposed to an inert gas RF plasma after dosing the wafer surface with the organosilicon precursor.

Modifying hydrophobicity of a wafer surface using an organosilicon precursor

Methods for filling gaps with dielectric material involve deposition using an atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique to fill a gap followed by deposition of a cap layer on the filled gap by a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique. The ALD deposition may be a plasma-enhanced ALD (PEALD) or thermal ALD (tALD) deposition. The CVD deposition may be plasma-enhanced CVD (PECVD) or thermal CVD (tCVD) deposition. In some embodiments, the CVD deposition is performed in the same chamber as the ALD deposition without intervening process operations. This in-situ deposition of the cap layer results in a high throughput process with high uniformity. After the process, the wafer is ready for chemical-mechanical planarization (CMP) in some embodiments.

In-situ PECVD cap layer

Silicon oxide, silicon nitride, and silicon oxynitride films may be deposited by thermal atomic layer deposition (thermal ALD) in a single wafer plasma reactor. The single wafer plasma reactor can perform thermal ALD and plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD). Highly conformal films may be deposited at a high deposition rate without damaging or with minimal damage to the substrate using thermal ALD. The substrate may be heated at an elevated temperature during oxidation and/or nitridation. In some implementations, the elevated temperature is between about 500 C and about 750 C. In some implementations, hydrogen and oxygen may be flowed as reactant gases during oxidation, where the hydrogen and oxygen may react in an exothermic reaction to drive formation of oxide.

Thermal atomic layer deposition of silicon-containing films

A method for processing a substrate is described. A first reactant in vapor phase is introduced into a reaction chamber having the substrate therein. The first reactant is allowed to be adsorb onto the substrate surface. The non-reactive portion of the first reactant is purged from the reaction chamber after a flow of the first reactant has ceased. The second reactant is introduced in vapor phase into the reaction chamber while the first reactant is adsorbed onto the substrate surface. The second reactant comprises a 1:1:1 ratio of dihydrogen (H2), a nitro-gen-containing reactant, and an oxygen-containing reactant. A plasma is ignited based on the second reactant. The substrate surface is exposed to the plasma. The plasma is extinguished. Gas from the reaction chamber is purged.

Oxidative conversion in atomic layer deposition processes

Various embodiments include methods to produce low dielectric-constant (low-k) films. In one embodiment, alternating ALD cycles and dopant materials are used to generate a new family of silicon low-k materials. Specifically, these materials were developed to fill high-aspect-ratio structures with re-entrant features. However, such films are also useful in blanket applications where conformal nanolaminates are applicable. Various embodiments also disclose SiOF as well as SiOCF, SiONF, GeOCF, and GeOF. Analogous films may include halide derivatives with iodine and bromine (e.g., replace 'F' with “I” or “Br”). Other methods, chemistries, and techniques are disclosed.

Low-κ ALD gap-fill methods and material

A method for defining thin film layers on a surface of a substrate includes exposing the surface of the substrate to a first precursor via a first plasma to allow the first precursor to be absorbed by the surface of the substrate. A second precursor that is different from the first precursor is applied to the surface of the substrate via a second plasma. The second precursor is a Carbon dioxide precursor that releases sufficient oxygen radicals to react with the first precursor to form an oxide film layer on the surface of the substrate.

Growing community of inventors

Tigard, OR, United States of America

Douglas Walter Agnew