Lam Research Corporation

Novellus Systems Incorporated

Jennifer Leigh Petraglia

Frank Loren Pasquale

Adrien Lavoie

Shankar Swaminathan

Ramesh Chandrasekharan

Chloe Baldasseroni

Hu Kang

David Charles Smith

Jun Qian

Edward J Augustyniak

Tuan Anh Nguyen

Karl Frederick Leeser

Douglas L Keil

Sesha Varadarajan

Andrew Duvall

Ted Minshall

Bart Jan Van Schravendijk

Mandyam Sriram

Seshasayee Varadarajan

George Andrew Antonelli

Pramod Subramonium

Patrick G Breiling

Keith Fox

Dong Niu

John B Alexy

Antonio Xavier

Ryan Blaquiere

Joseph Lindsey Womack

Jason Dirk Haverkamp

Eashwar Ranganathan

Meenakshi Mamunuru

Purushottam Kumar

Pulkit Agarwal

Yukinori Sakiyama

Joseph Abel

Paul Franzen

Ravi Kumar

Michael Philip Roberts

Saangrut Sangplung

Aaron Bingham

Bart K Van Schravendijk

Awnish Gupta

Basha Sajjad

Trung T Le

Ashish Saurabh

Jason Alexander Varnell

Dinesh Baskar

Methods and apparatuses for depositing material onto substrates in a multi-station deposition apparatus having a first station and a second station are provided. One method may include providing a first substrate onto a first pedestal of the first station, providing a second substrate onto a second pedestal of the second station, and for a first part of a deposition process, simultaneously generating a first plasma at the first station while the first pedestal is separated by a first distance from a first showerhead of the first station, thereby depositing a first layer of material onto the first substrate, and a second plasma at the second station while the second pedestal is separated by a second distance from a second showerhead of the second station, thereby depositing a second layer of material onto the second substrate, in which the first distance is different than the second distance.

Multi-station semiconductor processing with independently adjustable pedestals

Various embodiments herein relate to methods and apparatus for depositing doped and undoped silicon-containing films having a high degree of purity. In one example, the method includes exposing the substrate to a first reactant and a second reactant; reacting the first and second reactants with one another to form a silicon-containing material and depositing a portion of the silicon-containing film on the substrate; before the silicon-containing film is complete, performing an impurity reduction operation including: (i) generating a plasma from a plasma generation gas comprising inert gas and hydrogen, where the plasma generation gas is substantially free of oxygen, and (ii) exposing the substrate to the plasma to thereby reduce a concentration of fluorine, carbon, hydrogen, and/or nitrogen in the silicon-containing film; and repeating these operations (or a subset thereof) until the silicon-containing film is deposited to a final thickness.

Impurity reduction in silicon-containing films

A method of depositing a film stack including films of different compositions in a process station using a plasma is described. The method includes: in a first plasma-activated film deposition phase, depositing a first film having a first film composition on a substrate, and, in a second plasma-activated deposition phase, depositing a second film having a second film composition on the first film, where the second film composition is different from the first film composition. Deposition of the first film can include delivering at least two first deposition phase reactants to the process station via a delivery line; and deposition of the second film can include delivering at least two second deposition phase reactants to the process station via the same delivery line that was used during deposition of the first film. The method may also include a step of purging the delivery line.

Plasma-enhanced deposition of film stacks

Methods and apparatus for use of a fill on demand ampoule are disclosed. The fill on demand ampoule may refill an ampoule with precursor concurrent with the performance of other deposition processes. The fill on demand may keep the level of precursor within the ampoule at a relatively constant level. The level may be calculated to result in an optimum head volume. The fill on demand may also keep the precursor at a temperature near that of an optimum precursor temperature. The fill on demand may occur during parts of the deposition process where the agitation of the precursor due to the filling of the ampoule with the precursor minimally effects the substrate deposition. Substrate throughput may be increased through the use of fill on demand.

Fill on demand ampoule refill

A gas delivery system includes a 2-port valve including a first valve located between a first port and a second port. A 4-port valve includes a first node connected to a first port and a second port. A bypass path is located between the third port and the fourth port. A second node is located along the bypass path. A second valve is located between the first node and the second node. A manifold block defines gas flow channels configured to connect the first port of the 4-port valve to a first inlet, configured to connect the second port of the 4-port valve to the first port of the 2-port valve, the third port of the 4-port valve to a second inlet, the second port of the 2-port valve to a first outlet, and the fourth port of the 4-port valve to a second outlet.

Substrate processing systems including gas delivery system with reduced dead legs

A substrate processing system configured to perform a deposition process on a substrate includes a substrate support including a plurality of zones and a plurality of resistive heaters arranged throughout the plurality of zones. The plurality of resistive heaters includes separately-controllable resistive heaters arranged in respective ones of the plurality of zones. A controller is configured to, during the deposition process, control the plurality of resistive heaters to selectively adjust temperatures within the plurality of zones.

Multi zone substrate support for ALD film property correction and tunability

A substrate processing system includes: a processing chamber defining a reaction volume; a showerhead including: a stem portion having one end connected adjacent to an upper surface of the processing chamber; and a base portion connected to an opposite end of the stem portion and extending radially outwardly from the stem portion, where the showerhead is configured to introduce gas into the reaction volume; a plasma generator configured to selectively generate RF plasma in the reaction volume; and a collar arranged around the stem portion of the showerhead between the base portion of the showerhead and the upper surface of the processing chamber. The collar includes one or more holes to supply purge gas from an inner cavity of the collar to between the base portion of the showerhead and the upper surface of the processing chamber.

Systems and methods for suppressing parasitic plasma and reducing within-wafer non-uniformity

A substrate processing system for depositing film on a substrate includes a processing chamber defining a reaction volume. A showerhead includes a stem portion having one end connected adjacent to an upper surface of the processing chamber. A base portion is connected to an opposite end of the stem portion and extends radially outwardly from the stem portion. The showerhead is configured to introduce at least one of process gas and purge gas into the reaction volume. A plasma generator is configured to selectively generate RF plasma in the reaction volume. An edge tuning system includes a collar and a parasitic plasma reducing element that is located around the stem portion between the collar and an upper surface of the showerhead. The parasitic plasma reducing element is configured to reduce parasitic plasma between the showerhead and the upper surface of the processing chamber.

A showerhead in a semiconductor processing apparatus can include faceplate through-holes configured to improve the flow uniformity during atomic layer deposition. The showerhead can include a faceplate having a plurality of through-holes for distributing gas onto a substrate, where the faceplate includes small diameter through-holes. For example, the diameter of each of the through-holes can be less than about 0.04 inches. In addition or in the alternative, the showerhead can include edge through-holes positioned circumferentially along a ring having a diameter greater than a diameter of the substrate being processed. The showerhead can be a low volume showerhead and can include a baffle proximate one or more gas inlets in communication with a plenum volume of the showerhead. The faceplate with small diameter through-holes and/or edge through-holes can improve overall film non-uniformity, improve azimuthal film non-uniformity at the edge of the substrate, and enable operation at higher RF powers.

Low volume showerhead with faceplate holes for improved flow uniformity

An apparatus for depositing film stacks in-situ (i.e., without a vacuum break or air exposure) are described. In one example, a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition apparatus configured to deposit a plurality of film layers on a substrate without exposing the substrate to a vacuum break between film deposition phases, is provided. The apparatus includes a process chamber, a plasma source and a controller configured to control the plasma source to generate reactant radicals using a particular reactant gas mixture during the particular deposition phase, and sustain the plasma during a transition from the particular reactant gas mixture supplied during the particular deposition phase to a different reactant gas mixture supplied during a different deposition phase.

PECVD apparatus for in-situ deposition of film stacks

A dual-temperature, multi-plenum showerhead for use in semiconductor processing equipment is described. The showerhead may supply multiple separate gases to a wafer reaction area while keeping the gases largely segregated within the showerhead. Additionally, the showerhead may be configured to allow a faceplate of the showerhead to be maintained at a significantly higher temperature than the rest of the showerhead.

Multi-plenum, dual-temperature showerhead

Methods for depositing film on substrates are provided. In these embodiments, the substrates are processed in batches. Due to changing conditions within a reaction chamber as additional substrates in the batch are processed, various film properties may trend over the course of a batch. The methods herein can be used to address the trending of film properties over the course of a batch. More specifically, film property trending is minimized by changing the amount of RF power used to process substrates over the course of the batch. Such methods are sometimes referred to as RF compensation methods.

Method for RF compensation in plasma assisted atomic layer deposition

Growing community of inventors

Portland, OR, United States of America

Jennifer Leigh Petraglia