Applied Materials, Inc.

Ganesh Balasubramanian

Juan Carlos Rocha-Alvarez

Bok Hoen Kim

Jianhua Zhou

Amit Kumar Bansal

Ramprakash Sankarakrishnan

Deenesh Padhi

Zhijun Jiang

Thomas E Nowak

Bhaskar Kumar

Mohamad A Ayoub

Kwangduk Douglas Lee

Dale Robert Du Bois

Vivek Bharat Shah

Hichem M'Saad

Karthik Janakiraman

Anup Kumar Singh

Xinhai Han

Jian J Chen

Martin Jay Seamons

Jeongmin Lee

Visweswaren Sivaramakrishnan

Todd J Egan

Prashant Kumar Kulshreshtha

Sudha S Rathi

Nagarajan Rajagopalan

Sidharth Bhatia

Patrick Reilly

Masaki Ogata

Shahid Shaikh

Abdul Aziz Khaja

Edward W Budiarto

Terrance Y Lee

Michael Wenyoung Tsiang

Sungwon Ha

Chiu Chan

Heung Lak Park

Derek R Witty

Kaushik Comandoor Alayavalli

Zheng John Ye

Mark A Fodor

Hemant P Mungekar

Daemian Raj

Jay D Pinson, Ii

Hari K Ponnekanti

Ziqing Duan

Praket Prakash Jha

Vinay K Prabhakar

Kalyanjit Ghosh

Annamalai Lakshmanan

Vinayak Vishwanath Hassan

Francimar Campana Schmitt

Tuan Anh Nguyen

Hiroji Hanawa

Sanjeev Baluja

Tom K Cho

Sohyun Park

Mandar Balasaheb Pandit

Anjana M Patel

Li-Qun Xia

Pramit Manna

Paul Benjamin Reuter

Amir Hamed Al-Bayati

Sang-Jin Kim

Zhenjiang Cui

Yue Chen

Prashanth Kothnur

Edward P Hammond

Hang Yu

Krishna Nittala

Juan Carlos Rocha

Daemian Raj Benjamin Raj

Shailendra Srivastava

Ratsamee Limdulpaiboon

Kirby Hane Floyd

Siu Fai Cheng

Hidehiro Kojiri

Jennifer Y Sun

Kallol Bera

Eric Andrew Englhardt

Mukund Srinivasan

Ren-Guan Duan

Xinglong Chen

Canfeng Lai

Lin Zhang

Diwakar N Kedlaya

Zubin Huang

Tejas Ulavi

Sarah Michelle Bobek

Abraham Ravid

Shuran Sheng

Dale R Dubois

Mayur G Kulkarni

Song-Moon Suh

Nitin Khurana

Eller Y Juco

Xing Lin

Badri N Ramamurthi

Viren Kalsekar

Nikhil Sudhindrarao Jorapur

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 processing methods may include forming a plasma of a cleaning precursor in a remote region of a semiconductor processing chamber. The methods may include flowing plasma effluents of the cleaning precursor into a processing region of the semiconductor processing chamber. The methods may include contacting a substrate support with the plasma effluents for a first period of time. The methods may include lowering the substrate support from a first position to a second position while continuing to flow plasma effluents of the cleaning precursor. The methods may include cleaning the processing region of the semiconductor processing chamber for a second period of time.

Chamber configurations and processes for particle control

Semiconductor processing systems and method are described that may include flowing deposition precursors into a substrate processing region of a semiconductor processing chamber, where the substrate processing region includes an electrostatic chuck. The methods may further include depositing a seasoning layer on the electrostatic chuck from the deposition precursors to form a seasoned electrostatic chuck. The seasoning layer may be characterized by a dielectric constant greater than or about 3.5. The methods may still further include applying a voltage to the seasoned electrostatic chuck of greater than or about 500 V. The seasoned electrostatic chuck may be characterized by a leakage current of less than or about 25 mA when the voltage is applied.

Systems and methods of seasoning electrostatic chucks with dielectric seasoning films

A method includes identifying sets of sensor data associated with wafers processed via wafer processing equipment and identifying sets of metrology data associated with the wafers processed via the wafer processing equipment. The method further includes generating sets of aggregated sensor-metrology data, each of the sets of aggregated sensor-metrology data including a respective set of sensor data and a respective set of metrology data. The method further includes causing, based on the sets of aggregated sensor-metrology data, performance of a corrective action associated with the wafer processing equipment.

Sensor metrology data integration

Exemplary deposition methods may include delivering a silicon-containing precursor and an inert gas to a processing region of a semiconductor processing chamber. The methods may include providing a hydrogen-containing precursor with the silicon-containing precursor and the inert gas. The methods may include forming a plasma of all precursors within the processing region of a semiconductor processing chamber. The methods may include depositing a silicon-containing material on a substrate disposed within the processing region of the semiconductor processing chamber. The processing region may be maintained free of helium delivery during the deposition method.

Helium-free silicon formation

Exemplary semiconductor structures and processing methods may include forming a first portion of a first semiconductor layer characterized by a first etch rate for an etch treatment, forming a second portion of the first semiconductor layer characterized by a second etch rate that is less than the first etch rate for the etch treatment, and forming a third portion of the first semiconductor layer characterized by a third etch rate that is greater than the second etch rate. The processing methods may further include etching an opening through the first semiconductor layer, where the opening has a height and a width, and where the opening is characterized by a variation in the width between a midpoint of the height of the opening and an endpoint of the opening that is less than or about 5 Å.

Profile shaping for control gate recesses

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

Exemplary semiconductor processing systems may include a processing chamber including a lid stack having an output manifold. The systems may include a gas panel. The systems may include an input manifold. The input manifold may fluidly couple the gas panel with the output manifold of the processing chamber. A delivery line may extend from the input manifold to the output manifold. The systems may include a first transmission line extending from a first set of precursor sources of the gas panel to the delivery line. The systems may include a second transmission line extending from a second set of precursor sources of the gas panel to the delivery line. The second transmission line may be switchably coupled between the delivery line and an exhaust of the semiconductor processing system.

Switchable delivery for semiconductor processing system

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

Methods and systems of detection of wafer de-chucking in a semiconductor processing chamber are disclosed. Methods and systems of interdiction are also disclosed to prevent hardware and wafer damage during semiconductor fabrication if and when de-chucking is detected. In one embodiment, a de-chucking detection method is based on measuring change in imaginary impedance of a plasma circuit, along with measuring one or both of reflected RF power and arc count. In another embodiment, a possibility of imminent de-chucking is detected even before complete de-chucking occurs by analyzing the signature change in imaginary impedance.

Wafer de-chucking detection and arcing prevention

A method of processing a substrate according to a PECVD process is described. Temperature profile of the substrate is adjusted to change deposition rate profile across the substrate. Plasma density profile is adjusted to change deposition rate profile across the substrate. Chamber surfaces exposed to the plasma are heated to improve plasma density uniformity and reduce formation of low quality deposits on chamber surfaces. In situ metrology may be used to monitor progress of a deposition process and trigger control actions involving substrate temperature profile, plasma density profile, pressure, temperature, and flow of reactants.

PECVD process

Exemplary methods of semiconductor processing may include forming a plasma of a carbon-containing precursor in a processing region of a semiconductor processing chamber. The methods may include depositing a carbon-containing material on a substrate housed in the processing region of the semiconductor processing chamber. The methods may include halting a flow of the carbon-containing precursor into the processing region of the semiconductor processing chamber. The methods may include contacting the carbon-containing material with plasma effluents of an oxidizing material. The methods may include forming volatile materials from a surface of the carbon-containing material.

Treatments for controlling deposition defects

A processing system comprises a chamber body, a substrate support and a lid assembly. The substrate support is located in the chamber body and comprises a first electrode. The lid assembly is positioned over the chamber body and defines a processing volume. The lid assembly comprises a faceplate, a second electrode positioned between the faceplate and the chamber body, and an insulating member positioned between the second electrode and the processing volume. A power supply system is coupled to the first electrode and the faceplate and is configured to generate a plasma in the processing volume.

Process chamber with reduced plasma arc

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

Examples disclosed herein relate to a method and apparatus for cleaning and repairing a substrate support having a heater disposed therein. A method includes (a) cleaning a surface of a substrate support having a bulk layer, the substrate support is disposed in a processing environment configured to process substrates. The cleaning process includes forming a plasma at a high temperature from a cleaning gas mixture having a fluorine containing gas and oxygen. The method includes (b) removing oxygen radicals from the processing environment with a treatment plasma formed from a treatment gas mixture. The treatment gas mixture includes the fluorine containing gas. The method further includes (c) repairing an interface of the substrate support and the bulk layer with a post-treatment plasma. The post-treatment plasma is formed from a post-treatment gas mixture including a nitrogen containing gas. The high temperature is greater than or equal to about 500 degrees Celsius.

High-temperature chamber and chamber component cleaning and maintenance method and apparatus

Growing community of inventors

Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Ganesh Balasubramanian