Lam Research Corporation

Geoffrey Hohn

Huatan Qiu

Bo Gong

Rachel E Batzer

Bhadri N Varadarajan

Zhe Gui

Patrick G Breiling

Guangbi Yuan

Taide Tan

Will Schlosser

Anand Chandrashekar

Leonard Wai Fung Kho

Curtis Warren Bailey

Gang Liu

Damodar Rajaram Shanbhag

Andrew H Breninger

Fengyuan Lai

Tony Kaushal

Chen-Hua Hsu

Krishna Birru

Rohit Khare

Thadeous Bamford

William Schlosser

Bart Jan Van Schravendijk

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

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

An assembly for use in a process chamber for depositing a film on a wafer. The assembly includes a pedestal having a pedestal top surface extending from a central axis of the pedestal to an outer edge, the pedestal top surface having a plurality of wafer supports for supporting a wafer. A pedestal step having a step surface extending from a step inner diameter towards the outer edge of the pedestal. A focus ring rests on the step surface and having a mesa extending from an outer diameter of the focus ring to a mesa inner diameter. A shelf steps downwards from a mesa surface at the mesa inner diameter, and extends between the mesa inner diameter and an inner diameter of the focus ring. The shelf is configured to support at least a portion of a wafer bottom surface of the wafer at a process temperature.

Wafer level uniformity control in remote plasma film deposition

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 including an inlet to receive heat transfer fluid and a plurality of flow channels to direct the heat transfer fluid through a center portion of the showerhead to an outlet to control a temperature of the showerhead, 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.

Methods and apparatus for remote plasma processing are provided. In various embodiments, a reaction chamber 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 within the reaction chamber 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.

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Portland, OR, United States of America

Geoffrey Hohn