Applied Materials, Inc.

Haim Gilboa

Hiroji Hanawa

Roderick Craig Mosely

Donald M Mintz

Humoyoun Talieh

In a method for preparing a shield for use in a physical vapor deposition process, the shield is sputter-etch cleaned to increase adhesion of deposits in the physical vapor deposition process. The sputter-etch cleaning serves to loosen contamination which may for a diffusion barrier and prevent the deposits from bonding to the shield. Also, the sputter-etch cleaning creates a high degree of micro-roughness. The roughness allows for an increase in nucleation sites which minimize the formation of interface voids. In addition to sputter-etch cleaning the shield may be bead blasted. The bead blasting makes the surface of the shield irregular. This enhances interface cracking of deposited material on a microscopic scale, resulting in less flaking.

Method for preparing a shield to reduce particles in a physical vapor

Process and apparatus are disclosed for forming a layer of a stoichiometric metal compound on a semiconductor wafer by reactive sputtering a metal target in a chamber in the presence of a reactive gas, wherein the negative potential on a metal target is increased or decreased to change the supply of sputtered metal atoms available to react with the atoms of the reactive gas at a fixed flow of the gas by resetting the power level of a constant power source electrically connected to the target and a path is provided for the flow of reactive gas to the zone between the target and the wafer, while restricting the travel of the stoichiometric metal compound being formed from the zone to thereby provide a stoichiometric ratio of sputtered metal atoms and reactive gas atoms adjacent the wafer to form the stoichiometric metal compound on the wafer. The target potential is raised or lowered by resetting the power level of a constant power source by feeding a target voltage monitor signal back to the constant power source as a power level set signal, while the reactive gas path is provided by a series of nested members which provide a path for the reactive gas while restricting the backflow of the stoichiometric metal compound being formed.

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Palo Alto, CA, United States of America

Haim Gilboa