Applied Materials, Inc.

Fuhong Zhang

Martin Lee Riker

Zheng Wang

Xianmin Tang

Lanlan Zhong

Adolph Miller Allen

Xiangjin Xie

Xiaodong Wang

Keith A Miller

Joung Joo Lee

Yu Liu

Shirish A Pethe

Kishor Kumar Kalathiparambil

William R Johanson

William Fruchterman

Rongjun Wang

Shouyin Zhang

Anthony Infante

Rui Li

Suhas Bangalore Umesh

Brij Datta

Prashanth Kothnur

Goichi Yoshidome

Paul Kiely

Sunil Kumar Garg

Zheng Xu

Jianming Fu

Peijun Ding

Kirankumar Neelasandra Savandaiah

Fusen E Chen

Yong Cao

Michael A Miller

Feng Chen

Tae Hong Ha

Jick M Yu

Jothilingam Ramalingam

Wei Lei

Paul Dennis Connors

Preetham P Rao

Madan Kumar Shimoga Mylarappa

Luke Vianney Varkey

Gang Shen

Chao Du

Mingdong Li

Chen Gong

Andrew Tomko

Lewis Yuan Tse Lo

Hsien-Lung Yang

Sushil Arun Samant

Junjie Pan

Methods of monitoring arcing in a process chamber, processing chambers and monitoring apparatus are described. At least one of the angular or radial position of a magnetron is determined in the chamber relative to a reference location on a surface of the substrate using positional information from one or more motors. An arcing profile is generated comprising a plurality of arcing states measured based at least on the determined angular and/or radial position of the magnetron.

System for target arcing mapping and plasma diagnosis

Methods of processing a substrate in a PVD chamber are provided herein. In some embodiments, a method of processing a substrate in a PVD chamber, includes: sputtering material from a target disposed in the PVD chamber and onto a substrate, wherein at least some of the material sputtered from the target is guided to the substrate through a magnetic field provided by one or more upper magnets disposed about a processing volume of the PVD chamber above a support pedestal for the substrate in the PVD chamber, one or more first magnets disposed about the support pedestal and providing an increased magnetic field strength at an edge region of the substrate, and one or more second magnets disposed below the support pedestal that increase a magnetic field strength at a central region of the substrate.

Methods for shaping magnetic fields during semiconductor processing

Methods and apparatus for processing substrates are disclosed. In some embodiments, a process chamber for processing a substrate includes: a body having an interior volume and a target to be sputtered, the interior volume including a central portion and a peripheral portion; a substrate support disposed in the interior volume opposite the target and having a support surface configured to support the substrate; a collimator disposed in the interior volume between the target and the substrate support; a first magnet disposed about the body proximate the collimator; a second magnet disposed about the body above the support surface and entirely below the collimator and spaced vertically below the first magnet; and a third magnet disposed about the body and spaced vertically between the first magnet and the second magnet. The first, second, and third magnets are configured to generate respective magnetic fields to redistribute ions over the substrate.

Methods and apparatus for controlling ion fraction in physical vapor deposition processes

Collimator for a physical vapor deposition chamber

Collimator for use in a physical vapor deposition (PVD) chamber

Embodiments disclosed herein generally relate to methods of depositing a plurality of layers. A doped copper seed layer is deposited in a plurality of feature definitions in a device structure. A first copper seed layer is deposited and then the first copper seed layer is doped to form a doped copper seed layer, or a doped copper seed layer is deposited directly. The doped copper seed layer leads to increased flowability, reducing poor step coverage, overhang, and voids in the copper layer.

Method of depositing multilayer stack including copper over features of a device structure

Methods and apparatus for filling features on a substrate are provided herein. In some embodiments, a method of filling features on a substrate includes: depositing a first metallic material on the substrate and within a feature disposed in the substrate in a first process chamber via a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process at a first temperature; depositing a second metallic material on the first metallic material in a second process chamber at a second temperature and at a first bias power to form a seed layer of the second metallic material; etching the seed layer in the second process chamber at a second bias power greater than the first bias power to form an intermix layer within the feature comprising the first metallic material and the second metallic material; and heating the substrate to a third temperature greater than the second temperature, causing a reflow of the second metallic material.

Methods and apparatus for intermixing layer for enhanced metal reflow

Methods and apparatus for processing a plurality of substrates are provided herein. In some embodiments, a method of processing a plurality of substrates in a physical vapor deposition (PVD) chamber includes: performing a series of reflow processes on a corresponding series of substrates over at least a portion of a life of a sputtering target disposed in the PVD chamber, wherein a substrate-to-target distance in the PVD chamber and a support-to-target distance within the PVD chamber are each controlled as a function of the life of the sputtering target.

Substrate temperature non-uniformity reduction over target life using spacing compensation

Embodiments of a process chamber are provided herein. In some embodiments, a process chamber includes a chamber body having an interior volume, a substrate support disposed in the interior volume, a target disposed within the interior volume and opposing the substrate support, a process shield disposed in the interior volume and having an upper portion surrounding the target and a lower portion surrounding the substrate support, the upper portion having an inner diameter that is greater than an outer diameter of the target to define a gap between the process shield and the target, and a gas inlet to provide a gas to the interior volume through the gap or across a front opening of the gap to substantially prevent particles from the interior volume from entering the gap during use.

Physical vapor deposition (PVD) chamber with reduced arcing

Methods and apparatus to minimize electromagnetic interference between adjacent process chambers of a cluster tool are described. The start time of the subject recipe is controlled based on the electromagnetic process window of the subject process chamber, the electromagnetic window of the first adjacent process chamber and of an optional second adjacent process chamber. The start time of the subject process chamber is controlled to prevent temporal overlap of the electromagnetic window of the subject chamber with the electromagnetic window of an adjacent chamber.

Methods and apparatus to prevent interference between processing chambers

Methods and apparatus for processing a substrate are provided herein. A method, for example, includes igniting a plasma at a first pressure within a processing volume of a process chamber; depositing sputter material from a target disposed within the processing volume while decreasing the first pressure to a second pressure within a first time frame while maintaining the plasma; continuing to deposit sputter material from the target while decreasing the second pressure to a third pressure within a second time frame less than the first time frame while maintaining the plasma; and continuing to deposit sputter material from the target while maintaining the third pressure for a third time frame that is greater than or equal to the second time frame while maintaining the plasma.

Methods and apparatus for processing a substrate

A collimator that is biasable is provided. The ability to bias the collimator allows control of the electric field through which the sputter species pass. In some implementations of the present disclosure, a collimator that has a high effective aspect ratio while maintaining a low aspect ratio along the periphery of the collimator of the hexagonal array of the collimator is provided. In some implementations, a collimator with a steep entry edge in the hexagonal array is provided. It has been found that use of a steep entry edge in the collimator reduces deposition overhang and clogging of the cells of the hexagonal array. These various features lead to improve film uniformity and extend the life of the collimator and process kit.

Biasable flux optimizer / collimator for PVD sputter chamber

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Fuhong Zhang