Applied Materials, Inc.

Other

Houda Graoui

Wei Liu

Johanes S Swenberg

Rene George

Shashank Sharma

Steven C H Hung

Lara Hawrylchak

Amir Hamed Al-Bayati

Theresa Kramer Guarini

Malcolm J Bevan

Bernard Lloyd Hwang

Philip A Bottini

Huy Q Nguyen

Shankar Muthukrishnan

Majeed Foad

Balasubramanian Ramachandran

Sundar Ramamurthy

Ravi Jallepally

Ryan C Boas

Joseph M Spear

Embodiments described herein generally relate to enable the formation of a metal gate structure with a reduced effective oxide thickness over a similar structure formed via conventional methods. A plasma hydrogenation process followed by a plasma nitridization process, or a single-step plasma hydrogenation and nitridization process, is performed on a metal nitride layer in a film stack, thereby, according to some embodiments, removing oxygen atoms disposed within layers of the film stack and, in some embodiments, adding nitrogen atoms to the layers of the film stack. As a result, an effective oxide thickness of the metal gate structure is reduced with little or no accompanying flatband voltage shift.

Hydrogenation and nitridization processes for modifying effective oxide thickness of a film

Embodiments described herein generally relate to a sequential hydrogenation and nitridization process for reducing interfacial and bulk O atoms in a conductive structure in a semiconductor device. A hydrogenation and plasma nitridization process is performed on a metal nitride layer in a conductive structure prior to deposition of a second metal layer, thereby reducing interfacial oxygen atoms formed on a surface of the metal nitride and oxygen atoms present in the bulk metal layers of the conductive structure. As a result, adhesion of the second metal layer to the metal nitride layer is improved and the electrical resistance of the contact structure is reduced.

Hydrogenation and nitridization processes for reducing oxygen content in a film

Embodiments described herein generally relate to enable the formation of a metal gate structure with a reduced effective oxide thickness over a similar structure formed via conventional methods. A plasma hydrogenation process followed by a plasma nitridization process is performed on a metal nitride layer in a film stack, thereby removing oxygen atoms disposed within layers of the film stack and, in some embodiments eliminating an oxygen-containing interfacial layer disposed within the film stack. As a result, an effective oxide thickness of the metal gate structure is reduced with little or no accompanying flatband voltage shift. Further, the metal gate structure operates with an increased leakage current that is as little as one quarter the increase in leakage current associated with a similar metal gate structure formed via conventional techniques.

A sequential plasma process is employed to enable the modification of the work function of a p-type metal layer in a metal gate structure. The sequential plasma process includes a plasma hydrogenation and a plasma process that includes electronegative species. The sequential plasma process is performed on a p-type metal layer in a film stack, thereby replacing suboxides and/or other non-stoichiometrically combined electronegative atoms disposed on or within layers of the film stack with stoichiometrically combined electronegative atoms, such as O atoms. As a result, the work function of the p-type metal layer can be modified without changing a thickness of the p-type metal layer.

Modifying work function of a metal film with a plasma process

Embodiments described herein generally relate to a method and apparatus for plasma treating a process chamber. A substrate having a gate stack formed thereon may be placed in a process chamber, and hydrogen containing plasma may be used to treat the gate stack in order to cure the defects in the gate stack. As the result of hydrogen containing plasma treatment, the gate stack has lower leakage and improved reliability. To protect the process chamber from Hions and H* radicals generated by the hydrogen containing plasma, the process chamber may be treated with a plasma without the substrate placed therein and prior to the hydrogen containing plasma treatment. In addition, components of the process chamber that are made of a dielectric material may be coated with a ceramic coating including an yttrium containing oxide in order to protect the components from the plasma.

Plasma treating a process chamber

A method of ion implantation comprises the steps of: providing a semiconductor substrate; performing a pre-amorphisation implant in the semiconductor substrate in a direction of implant at an angle in the range of 20-60&#xb0; to a normal to a surface of the semiconductor substrate, and performing an implant of a dopant in the semiconductor substrate to provide a shallow junction. In a feature of the invention, the method further comprises performing an implant of a defect trapping element in the semiconductor substrate and the pre-amorphisation implant step is performed at a first implant energy and the implant of a defect trapping element is performed at a second implant energy, the ratio of the first implant energy to the second implant energy being in the range of 10-40%.

Method of ion implantation to reduce transient enhanced diffusion

Lamp based spike annealing was improved to address the aggressive requirements of &#x3c;100 nm Ultra Shallow Junction (USJ) technologies. Improvements focused on enhancing cool down rates, and thereby improving spike sharpness. Boron ion implanted substrates with varying ion-implanted energy and dose were then annealed to characterize the improvements in spike annealing. A greater than 10% improvement in sheet resistance and junction depth was realized on substrates that were annealed with the improved spike profile. The improved spike anneal had the same comparable uniformity to the standard spike anneal.

Advances in spike anneal processes for ultra shallow junctions

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Gilroy, CA, United States of America

Houda Graoui