Tokyo Electron Limited

Hideki Kiryu

Shintaro Aoyama

Hiroshi Shinriki

Masahito Sugiura

Tsuyoshi Takahashi

Shintaro c/o Tokyo Electron Limited Aoyama

Hiroshi c/o Tokyo Electron At Limited Shinriki

Tsuyoshi c/o Tokyo Electron Limited Takahashi

A method of forming a dielectric film on a Si substrate comprises the steps of adsorbing a gaseous molecular compound of a metal element constituting a dielectric material on a Si substrate, and causing a decomposition of the gaseous molecular compound thus adsorbed by a hydrolysis process or pyrolytic decomposition process or an oxidation process.

Method of forming a dielectric film

A stacked gate insulating film comprises a silicon oxide film and a tantalum oxide film which is stacked on the silicon oxide film and whose dielectric constant is higher than a dielectric constant of the silicon oxide film. The stacked gate insulating film is formed in accordance with the following steps. A semiconductor wafer is heated up, and the surface thereof is heat-oxidized. The silicon oxide film is formed on the semiconductor wafer (heat oxidation process). The silicon oxide film is etched back so as to be made thin (etch back process). The tantalum oxide film is stacked on the thin silicon oxide film (dielectric film formation process), thereby to form the stacked gate insulating film.

Method and system for forming a stacked gate insulating film

A pretreatment chamber is disposed within a vacuum transfer chamber of a processing apparatus The pretreatment chamber is equipped with an orienting mechanism and a UV lamp The orienting mechanism orients a wafer W through rotation of a table , on which the wafer W is placed, and by use of an optical sensor . Synchronously with the orientation, the UV lamp emits UV through a UV transmission window fitted to a ceiling portion of the pretreatment chamber , to thereby irradiate the surface of the wafer W with UV. Thus adhering to the wafer W is removed. A processing gas supplied into the pretreatment chamber is also irradiated with UV. Active atoms generated from the processing gas also contribute to removal of carbon. Since the pretreatment chamber is formed within the vacuum transfer chamber , the footprint of the processing apparatus can be reduced. Since orientation of the wafer W and removal of contaminants are performed concurrently, throughput is improved.

Processing apparatus and processing method

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Sagamihara, Japan

Hideki Kiryu