Asm International N.v.

Asm IP Holding B.v.

Other

Asm America, Inc.

Asm Microchemistry Oy

Hessel Sprey

Dieter Pierreux

Jan Willem Maes

Tom E Blomberg

David Kurt De Roest

Raija H Matero

Linda Lindroos

Kees Van Der Jeugd

Lucia D'Urzo

Suvi P Haukka

Ivo Johannes Raaijmakers

Bert Jongbloed

Pekka T Soininen

Kai-Erik Elers

Werner Knaepen

Juhana Kostamo

Maarten Stokhof

Wei Min Li

Qi Xie

Marko J Tuominen

Hideaki Fukuda

Christiaan J Werkhoven

Paul Mertens

Herbert Terhorst

Marc Marcel Heyns

Akinori Nakano

Cornelius A Van Der Jeugd

Menso Hendriks

Marc Schaekers

Ernst H Granneman

Peter Marc Zagwijn

Robin Roelofs

Arjen Benjamin Storm

Cornelis Thaddeus Herbschleb

Tatsuya Yoshimi

Noureddine Adjeroud

Devendra Kumar

Kamal Kishore Goundar

Nathanael R C Kemeling

Jan Willem Hubert Maes

Auguste J L Sophie

Karine Kenis

Michael McGeary

Marinus Josephus De Blank

The invention relates to a substrate rack and a substrate processing system for processing substrates in a reaction chamber. The substrate rack may be used for introducing a plurality of substrates in the reaction chamber. The substrate rack may have a plurality of spaced apart substrate holding provisions configured to hold the substrates in a spaced apart relationship. The rack may have an illumination system to irradiate radiation with a range from 100 to 500 nanometers onto a top surface of the substrates.

Substrate rack and a substrate processing system and method

Antimony oxide thin films are deposited by atomic layer deposition using an antimony reactant and an oxygen source. Antimony reactants may include antimony halides, such as SbCl, antimony alkylamines, and antimony alkoxides, such as Sb(OEt). The oxygen source may be, for example, ozone. In some embodiments the antimony oxide thin films are deposited in a batch reactor. The antimony oxide thin films may serve, for example, as etch stop layers or sacrificial layers.

Atomic layer deposition of antimony oxide films

A process for depositing aluminum nitride is disclosed. The process comprises providing a plurality of semiconductor substrates in a batch process chamber and depositing an aluminum nitride layer on the substrates by performing a plurality of deposition cycles without exposing the substrates to plasma during the deposition cycles. Each deposition cycle comprises flowing an aluminum precursor pulse into the batch process chamber, removing the aluminum precursor from the batch process chamber, and removing the nitrogen precursor from the batch process chamber after flowing the nitrogen precursor and before flowing another pulse of the aluminum precursor. The process chamber may be a hot wall process chamber and the deposition may occur at a deposition pressure of less than 1 Torr.

Cyclic aluminum nitride deposition in a batch reactor

Method of depositing a film having a substantially uniform thickness by means of chemical vapor deposition, comprising:

Method of CVD-depositing a film having a substantially uniform film thickness

Thin films are formed by formed by atomic layer deposition, whereby the composition of the film can be varied from monolayer to monolayer during cycles including alternating pulses of self-limiting chemistries. In the illustrated embodiments, varying amounts of impurity sources are introduced during the cyclical process. A graded gate dielectric is thereby provided, even for extremely thin layers. The gate dielectric as thin as 2 nm can be varied from pure silicon oxide to oxynitride to silicon nitride. Similarly, the gate dielectric can be varied from aluminum oxide to mixtures of aluminum oxide and a higher dielectric material (e.g., ZrO) to pure high k material and back to aluminum oxide. In another embodiment, metal nitride (e.g., WN) is first formed as a barrier for lining dual damascene trenches and vias. During the alternating deposition process, copper can be introduced, e.g., in separate pulses, and the copper source pulses can gradually increase in frequency, forming a transition region, until pure copper is formed at the upper surface. Advantageously, graded compositions in these and a variety of other contexts help to avoid such problems as etch rate control, electromigration and non-ohmic electrical contact that can occur at sharp material interfaces. In some embodiments additional seed layers or additional transition layers are provided.

Thin films

In some embodiments, a low-k dielectric film liner, preferably comprising benzocyclobutene, is deposited on the sidewalls of through-silicon vias used in three-dimensional (3-D) integration of integrated circuits. A semiconductor workpiece having a via is provided. A dielectric film liner, preferably comprising benzocyclobutene, is deposited on the sidewalls of the via by chemical vapor deposition. Following the deposition of the dielectric film liner, conductive material is deposited into the via. The conductive material on the bottom of the via can be exposed by thinning the back of the semiconductor workpiece, thereby forming a through-silicon via. The semiconductor workpiece can form a stack with one or more additional semiconductor workpieces having vias filled with conductive material to form a 3-D integrated circuit. The conductive material electrically interconnects the integrated circuits at different levels of the stack.

Liner materials and related processes for 3-D integration

Method and structures are provided for conformal lining of dual damascene structures in integrated circuits. Preferred embodiments are directed to providing conformal lining over openings formed in porous materials. Trenches are formed in, preferably, insulating layers. The layers are then adequately treated with a particular plasma process. Following this plasma treatment a self-limiting, self-saturating atomic layer deposition (ALD) reaction can occur without significantly filling the pores forming improved interconnects.

Plasma pre-treating surfaces for atomic layer deposition

Method for etching a substrate wherein, after placing in an etching chamber, said substrate is treated with a mixture of HF and acetic acid. Acetic acid is introduced into the chamber first, followed by the hydrogen fluoride. Hydrogen fluoride is introduced via an intermediate stage during which the hydrogen fluoride is stored in an auxiliary chamber. By this means back-flow of a corrosive mixture consisting of hydrogen fluoride and acetic acid into the piping assembly for hydrogen fluoride is prevented and, thus, the life of the piping assembly concerned is appreciably prolonged and metal contamination on substrate treated later is prevented.

Method and installation for etching a substrate

The invention relates generally to improved silicon carbide deposition during dual damascene processing. In one aspect of the invention, copper oxide present on a substrate is reduced at least partially to copper prior to deposition of a silicon carbide or silicon oxycarbide layer thereon. In the preferred embodiment the reduction is accomplished by contacting the substrate with one or more organic reducing agents. The reduction process may be carried out in situ, in the same reaction chamber as subsequent processing steps. Alternatively, it may be carried out in a module of a cluster tool.

In situ reduction of copper oxide prior to silicon carbide deposition

Method and structures are provided for conformal lining of dual damascene structures in integrated circuits, and particularly of openings formed in porous materials. Trenches and contact vias are formed in insulating layers. The pores on the sidewalls of the trenches and vias are blocked, and then the structure is exposed to alternating chemistries to form monolayers of a desired lining material. In exemplary process flows chemical or physical vapor deposition (CVD or PVD) of a sealing layer blocks the pores due to imperfect conformality. An alternating process can also be arranged by selection of pulse separation and/or pulse duration to achieve reduced conformality relative to a self-saturating, self-limiting atomic layer deposition (ALD) process. In still another arrangement, layers with anisotropic pore structures can be sealed by selectively melting upper surfaces. Blocking is followed by a self-limiting, self-saturating atomic layer deposition (ALD) reactions without significantly filling the pores.

Sealing porous structures

A method of growing a silicon oxide layer on a silicon substrate by means of a thermal oxidation in a furnace in the presence of a gaseous mixture, said mixture comprising oxygen and Cl , said Cl being generated by an organic chlorine-carbon source, particularly oxalyl chloride. This method is directed to the growth of (ultra) thin silicon oxides and/or the cleaning of a substrate using a low oxidation power. Consequently the method disclosed is especially suited for temperature below &deg; C. and for oxidation ambients containing only small amounts of oxygen.

Method for growing thin silicon oxides on a silicon substrate using chlorine precursors

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Kessel-lo, Belgium

Hessel Sprey