Applied Materials, Inc.

Other

Hichem M'Saad

Li-Qun Xia

Derek R Witty

Juan Carlos Rocha-Alvarez

Ganesh Balasubramanian

Bok Hoen Kim

Mihaela A Balseanu

Visweswaren Sivaramakrishnan

Alexandros T Demos

Thomas E Nowak

Deenesh Padhi

Karthik Janakiraman

Sang H Ahn

Mei-Yee Shek

Sudha S Rathi

Sohyun Park

Tzu-Fang Huang

Farhad K Moghadam

Martin Jay Seamons

Vladimir Zubkov

Dustin Wenpin Ho

Khaled A Elsheref

Anchuan Wang

Christopher Dennis Bencher

Tom K Cho

Amir Hamed Al-Bayati

Zhenjiang Cui

Dale Robert Du Bois

Ramprakash Sankarakrishnan

Huiwen Xu

Yuxiang May Wang

Victor Nguyen

Chiu Chan

Wendy H Yeh

Chad Peterson

Meiyee Shek

Dana Tribula

Reza Arghavani

Manoj Vellaikal

Jia Lee

Isabelita Roflox

Wei Liu

Sanjeev Baluja

Amit Kumar Bansal

Michael Santiago Cox

Jianhua Zhou

Girish Anant Dixit

Meihua Shen

Mohamad A Ayoub

Nagarajan Rajagopalan

Kegang Huang

Rongping Wang

Scott A Hendrickson

Mario Dave Silvetti

Michael C Kwan

Peter Wai-Man Lee

Helen R Armer

Eller Y Juco

Francimar Campana Schmitt

Yijun Liu

Lihua Li

Jim Zhongyi He

Wen H Zhu

Ritwik Bhatia

Lester A D'Cruz

Josephine J Chang

Jeong-Uk Huh

Sameer Desai

Sudha S R Rathi

Josphine J Chang

Mei Yin Chang

Son Van Nguyen

Ellie Y Yieh

Takashi Shimizu

Michael S Barnes

Xinliang Lu

Chien-Teh Kao

Wei-Yung Hsu

Kang Sub Yim

Yi Zheng

Lin Zhang

Seon-Mee Cho

Antoine P Manens

Mark A Fodor

Annamalai Lakshmanan

Yaxin Wang

Dale R Dubois

Haichun Yang

Andrzej Kaszuba

Zhuang Li

Huong Thanh Nguyen

Daemian Raj

Hyoung-Chan Ha

Andrzei Kaszuba

Anton Baryshnikov

Sum-Yee Betty Tang

Yuri Trachuk

Ashish Shah

Dale DuBois

Shuang Liu

An apparatus and method are provided for controlling the intensity and distribution of a plasma discharge in a plasma chamber. In one embodiment, a shaped electrode is embedded in a substrate support to provide an electric field with radial and axial components inside the chamber. In another embodiment, the face plate electrode of the showerhead assembly is divided into zones by isolators, enabling different voltages to be applied to the different zones. Additionally, one or more electrodes may be embedded in the chamber side walls.

Tunable ground planes in plasma chambers

A method and apparatus for cleaning a process chamber are provided. In one embodiment, a process chamber is provided that includes a remote plasma source and a process chamber having at least two processing regions. Each processing region includes a substrate support assembly disposed in the processing region, a gas distribution system configured to provide gas into the processing region above the substrate support assembly, and a gas passage configured to provide gas into the processing region below the substrate support assembly. A first gas conduit is configured to flow a cleaning agent from the remote plasma source through the gas distribution assembly in each processing region while a second gas conduit is configured to divert a portion of the cleaning agent from the first gas conduit to the gas passage of each processing region.

Method and system for supplying a cleaning gas into a process chamber

The present invention generally provides methods and apparatus for monitoring and maintaining flatness of a substrate in a plasma reactor. Certain embodiments of the present invention provide a method for processing a substrate comprising positioning the substrate on an electrostatic chuck, applying an RF power between the an electrode in the electrostatic chuck and a counter electrode positioned parallel to the electrostatic chuck, applying a DC bias to the electrode in the electrostatic chuck to clamp the substrate on the electrostatic chuck, and measuring an imaginary impedance of the electrostatic chuck.

Apparatus and method for substrate clamping in a plasma chamber

High tensile stress in a deposited layer, such as a silicon nitride layer, may be achieved utilizing one or more techniques employed either alone or in combination. In one embodiment, a silicon nitride film having high tensile stress may be formed by depositing the silicon nitride film in the presence of a porogen. The deposited silicon nitride film may be exposed to at least one treatment selected from a plasma or ultraviolet radiation to liberate the porogen. The silicon nitride film may be densified such that a pore resulting from liberation of the porogen is reduced in size, and Si&#x2014;N bonds in the silicon nitride film are strained to impart a tensile stress in the silicon nitride film. In another embodiment, tensile stress in a silicon nitride film may be enhanced by depositing a silicon nitride film in the presence of a nitrogen-containing plasma at a temperature of less than about 400&#xb0; C., and exposing the deposited silicon nitride film to ultraviolet radiation.

Method to increase tensile stress of silicon nitride films using a post PECVD deposition UV cure

Methods of processing films on substrates are provided. In one aspect, the methods comprise treating a patterned low dielectric constant film after a photoresist is removed from the film by depositing a thin layer comprising silicon, carbon, and optionally oxygen and/or nitrogen on the film. The thin layer provides a carbon-rich, hydrophobic surface for the patterned low dielectric constant film. The thin layer also protects the low dielectric constant film from subsequent wet cleaning processes and penetration by precursors for layers that are subsequently deposited on the low dielectric constant film.

Method to minimize wet etch undercuts and provide pore sealing of extreme low k (k&#x3c;2.5) dielectrics

Methods are provided for forming a structure that includes an air gap. In one embodiment, a method is provided for forming a damascene structure including depositing a porous low dielectric constant layer by a method including reacting an organosilicon compound and a porogen-providing precursor, depositing a porogen-containing material, and removing at least a portion of the porogen-containing material, depositing an organic layer on the porous low dielectric constant layer by reacting the porogen-providing precursor, forming a feature definition in the organic layer and the porous low dielectric constant layer, filing the feature definition with a conductive material therein, depositing a mask layer on the organic layer and the conductive material disposed in the feature definition, forming apertures in the mask layer to expose the organic layer, removing a portion or all of the organic layer through the apertures, and forming an air gap adjacent the conductive material.

Air gap integration scheme

A filter for filtering a fluid in a substrate processing apparatus comprises first and second stages that are connected to one another. A delivery system provides a vaporized liquid to the filter. The first stage of the filter comprises a basic compound, and the second stage of the filter comprises a desiccant. A second filter comprises a permeation filter with permeable membrane to filter the fluid. Methods of filtering the fluid to reduce formation of undesirable process residues using the filter(s) are also described.

Fluid filtration for substrate processing chamber

An article having a protective coating for use in semiconductor applications and methods for making the same are provided. In certain embodiments, a method of coating an aluminum surface of an article utilized in a semiconductor processing chamber is provided. The method comprises providing a processing chamber; placing the article into the processing chamber; flowing a first gas comprising a carbon source into the processing chamber; flowing a second gas comprising a nitrogen source into the processing chamber; forming a plasma in the chamber; and depositing a coating material on the aluminum surface. In certain embodiments, the coating material comprises an amorphous carbon nitrogen containing layer. In certain embodiments, the article comprises a showerhead configured to deliver a gas to the processing chamber.

Methods to improve the in-film defectivity of PECVD amorphous carbon films

Stress of a silicon nitride layer may be enhanced by deposition at higher temperatures. Employing an apparatus that allows heating of a substrate to substantially greater than 400&#xb0; C. (for example a heater made from ceramic rather than aluminum), the silicon nitride film as-deposited may exhibit enhanced stress allowing for improved performance of the underlying MOS transistor device. In accordance with alternative embodiments, a deposited silicon nitride film is exposed to curing with ultraviolet (UV) radiation at an elevated temperature, thereby helping remove hydrogen from the film and increasing film stress. In accordance with still other embodiments, a silicon nitride film is formed utilizing an integrated process employing a number of deposition/curing cycles to preserve integrity of the film at the sharp corner of the underlying raised feature. Adhesion between successive layers may be promoted by inclusion of a post-UV cure plasma treatment in each cycle.

Method to increase silicon nitride tensile stress using nitrogen plasma in-situ treatment and ex-situ UV cure

High tensile stress in a deposited layer such as silicon nitride, may be achieved utilizing one or more techniques, employed alone or in combination. High tensile stress may be achieved by forming a silicon-containing layer on a surface by exposing the surface to a silicon-containing precursor gas in the absence of a plasma, forming silicon nitride by exposing said silicon-containing layer to a nitrogen-containing plasma, and then repeating these steps to increase a thickness of the silicon nitride created thereby. High tensile stress may also be achieved by exposing a surface to a silicon-containing precursor gas in a first nitrogen-containing plasma, treating the material with a second nitrogen-containing plasma, and then repeating these steps to increase a thickness of the silicon nitride formed thereby. In another embodiment, tensile film stress is enhanced by deposition with porogens that are liberated upon subsequent exposure to UV radiation or plasma treatment.

Methods for forming boron-containing films are provided. The methods include introducing a boron-containing precursor and a nitrogen or oxygen-containing precursor into a chamber and forming a boron nitride or boron oxide film on a substrate in the chamber. In one aspect, the method includes depositing a boron-containing film and then exposing the boron-containing film to the nitrogen-containing or oxygen-containing precursor to incorporate nitrogen or oxygen into the film. The deposition of the boron-containing film and exposure of the film to the precursor may be performed for multiple cycles to obtain a desired thickness of the film. In another aspect, the method includes reacting the boron-containing precursor and the nitrogen-containing or oxygen-containing precursor to chemically vapor deposit the boron nitride or boron oxide film.

Method of depositing boron nitride and boron nitride-derived materials

In one embodiment a method is provided for maintaining a substrate processing surface. The method generally includes performing a set of measurements on the substrate processing surface, wherein the set of measurements are taken using a displacement sensor coupled to a processing surface conditioning arm, determining a processing surface profile based on the set of measurements, comparing the processing surface profile to a minimum profile threshold, and communicating a result of the profile comparison.

CMP pad thickness and profile monitoring system

The present invention generally provides a method for forming a dielectric barrier with lowered dielectric constant, improved etching resistivity and good barrier property. One embodiment provides a method for processing a semiconductor substrate comprising flowing a precursor to a processing chamber, wherein the precursor comprises silicon-carbon bonds and carbon-carbon bonds, and generating a low density plasma of the precursor in the processing chamber to form a dielectric barrier film having carbon-carbon bonds on the semiconductor substrate, wherein the at least a portion of carbon-carbon bonds in the precursor is preserved in the low density plasma and incorporated in the dielectric barrier film.

Methods to obtain low k dielectric barrier with superior etch resistivity

Growing community of inventors

Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Hichem M'Saad