Lam Research Corporation

University of California

Lam Research Ag

Lam Research Group

Ji Zhu

Arjun Mendiratta

David S Mui

David S L Mui

John Martin De Larios

Mark Henry Wilcoxson

Seokmin Yun

Carl Woods

Mark Naoshi Kawaguchi

Dragan Valentin Podlesnik

Jeffrey J Farber

Satish Srinivasan

Shih-Chung Kon

Grant Peng

Nathan Musselwhite

Eric A Hudson

Thorsten B Lill

Fritz C Redeker

Peter K Loewenhardt

Meihua Shen

Katrina Mikhaylichenko

Baosuo Zhou

John P Parks

James V Tietz

John M deLarios

Michael H Nantz

Reza Sadjadi

Sangheon Lee

Ivelin A Angelov

Peter Cirigliano

Dengliang Yang

Joon Hong Park

Jason A Ryder

John Hoang

Jeffrey Bokor

Gabor A Somorjai

Pilyeon Park

Thomas S Choi

Amir A Yasseri

Shuogang Huang

Faisal Yaqoob

Kwame Eason

Prithu Sharma

Jeff Grunes

Rafal Ryszard Dylewicz

Hsiao-Wei Chang

Charles N Ditmore

Yang-Kyu Choi

Jeffrey G Gasparitsch

Nathan Lavdovsky

Gerome Michel Dominique Melaet

A method for treating a substrate includes arranging a substrate in a processing chamber. At least one of a vaporized solvent and a gas mixture including the solvent is supplied to the processing chamber to form a conformal liquid layer of the solvent on exposed surfaces of the substrate. The at least one of the vaporized solvent and the gas mixture is removed from the processing chamber. A reactive gas including a halogen species is supplied to the processing chamber. The conformal liquid layer adsorbs the reactive gas to form a reactive liquid layer that etches the exposed surfaces of the substrate.

Efficient cleaning and etching of high aspect ratio structures

A gas mixture for treating a substrate in a substrate processing system includes hydrogen fluoride gas, a vapor of an alcohol, an additive consisting of a base, and a carrier gas. The gas mixture can be used to treat high aspect ratio (HAR) structures arranged on a surface of a substrate. A surface of the substrate may be spin rinsed using a first rinsing liquid. The first rinsing liquid is spun off from the surface of the substrate. The gas mixture is directed onto the surface of the substrate after the first rinsing liquid is dispensed.

Gas mixture including hydrogen fluoride, alcohol and an additive for preventing stiction of and/or repairing high aspect ratio structures

A substrate processing system for selectively etching a layer on a substrate includes an upper chamber region, an inductive coil arranged around the upper chamber region and a lower chamber region including a substrate support to support a substrate. A gas distribution device is arranged between the upper chamber region and the lower chamber region and includes a plate with a plurality of holes. A cooling plenum cools the gas distribution device and a purge gas plenum directs purge gas into the lower chamber. A surface to volume ratio of the holes is greater than or equal to 4. A controller selectively supplies an etch gas mixture to the upper chamber and a purge gas to the purge gas plenum and strikes plasma in the upper chamber to selectively etch a layer of the substrate relative to at least one other exposed layer of the substrate.

Ultrahigh selective nitride etch to form FinFET devices

A method of opening a barrier film below copper structures in a stack is provided. A pulsed gas is provided into a plasma processing chamber, wherein the providing the pulsed gas comprises providing a pulsed Hcontaining gas and providing a pulsed halogen containing gas, wherein the pulsed Hcontaining gas and the pulsed halogen containing gas are pulsed out of phase, and wherein the pulsed Hcontaining gas has an Hhigh flow period and the pulsed halogen containing gas has a halogen containing gas high flow period, wherein the Hhigh flow period is greater than the halogen containing gas high flow period. The pulsed gas is formed into a plasma. The copper structures and the barrier film are exposed to the plasma, which etches the barrier film. In another embodiment, a wet and dry cyclical process may be used.

Method to etch copper barrier film

A method and system for cleaning a surface of a substrate after an etching operation includes determining a plurality of process parameters associated with the surface of the substrate. A plurality of application chemistries are identified based on the process parameters. The plurality of application chemistries includes a first application chemistry as an emulsion having a first immiscible liquid combined with a second immiscible liquid and solid particles distributed within the first immiscible liquid. The plurality of application chemistries including the first application chemistry are applied to the surface of the substrate such that the combined chemistries enhance the cleaning process by substantially removing the particulate and polymer residue contaminants from the surface of the substrate while preserving the characteristics of the features and of the low-k dielectric material through which the features are formed.

Method of dielectric film treatment

A cleaning material is applied to a surface of a substrate. The cleaning material includes one or more polymeric materials for entrapping contaminants present on the surface of the substrate. A rinsing fluid is applied to the surface of the substrate at a controlled velocity to effect removal of the cleaning material and contaminants entrapped within the cleaning material from the surface of the substrate. The controlled velocity of the rinsing fluid is set to cause the cleaning material to behave in an elastic manner when impacted by the rinsing fluid, thereby improving contaminant removal from the surface of the substrate.

Method and apparatus for removing contaminants from substrate

A system for cleaning a substrate includes a carrier and a cleaning station. The carrier is capable of holding the substrate and is movably coupled to a pair of guide tracks extending a length of the system. The cleaning station includes a force applicator and a gate. The force applicator has an applicator length and is operatively coupled to the cleaning station. The force applicator is rotatable and is adjusted to a first height off the surface of the carrier as the substrate is being cleaned. The force applicator has a hollow structure with internal channels and openings dispersed throughout the applicator length to dispense cleaning solution to substrate surface. The gate is affixed to a trailing edge of the force applicator and is set to a second height off the surface of the carrier. The gate includes a gate length that at least spans the applicator length.

Method and system for uniformly applying a multi-phase cleaning solution to a substrate

A method is provided for treating the surface of high aspect ratio nanostructures to help protect the delicate nanostructures during some of the rigorous processing involved in fabrication of semiconductor devices. A wafer containing high aspect ratio nanostructures is treated to make the surfaces of the nanostructures more hydrophobic. The treatment may include the application of a primer that chemically alters the surfaces of the nanostructures preventing them from getting damaged during subsequent wet clean processes. The wafer may then be further processed, for example a wet cleaning process followed by a drying process. The increased hydrophobicity of the nanostructures helps to reduce or prevent collapse of the nanostructures.

Method of reducing pattern collapse in high aspect ratio nanostructures

An apparatus is provided that includes a substrate support assembly for holding the semiconductor substrate and a dispense head for applying a cleaning material to clean the contaminants from the substrate surface. The dispense head extends across a length of the semiconductor substrate and is positioned proximate to the substrate surface at a distance of between about 0.1 mm and about 4.5 mm. The proximate position enables application of a force to the cleaning material as it is applied to the substrate surface as a film, and the cleaning material provided through the dispense head contains a cleaning liquid, a plurality of solid components, and polymers of a polymeric compound, each of the plurality of solid components and polymers being greater than zero and less than 3% of the cleaning material, the plurality of solid components and the polymers are dispersed for application through the dispense head.

Apparatus for application of two-phase contaminant removal medium

An apparatus used to supply a force onto a cleaning solution for processing a substrate for cleaning surface contaminants is disclosed. The apparatus includes a force applicator and a gate. The force applicator is configured to be adjusted to a first height off the surface of the substrate. The gate is positioned adjacent to a trailing point of the force applicator and is configured to be adjusted to a second height off of the surface of the substrate to enable planarization of the cleaning solution as the solution moves to the trailing point.

Fabrication methods disclosed herein provide for a nanoscale structure or a pattern comprising a plurality of nanostructures of specific predetermined position, shape and composition, including nanostructure arrays having large area at high throughput necessary for industrial production. The resultant nanostracture patterns are useful for nanostructure arrays, specifically sensor and catalytic arrays.

Methods for fabrication of positional and compositionally controlled nanostructures on substrate

A method is provided for receiving the wafer on a support, the support being configured for movement along a direction. While moving the wafer, dispensing a cleaning material to clean contaminants from the surface of the wafer, the dispensing applied as a film over a diameter length of the wafer. The cleaning material contains a cleaning liquid, a plurality of solid components, and polymers of a polymeric compound. Each of the plurality of solid components and polymers being greater than zero and less than 3% of the cleaning material, and wherein the polymers become soluble in the cleaning liquid and the solubilized polymers having long polymer chains that capture and entrap solid components and contaminants in the cleaning liquid. Then, rinsing the film off of the wafer with a rinsing meniscus. The rinsing meniscus applied along the diameter length of the wafer and the film is rinsed after the dispensing.

Methods for application of two-phase contaminant removal medium

The embodiments of the present invention provide improved materials, apparatus, and methods for cleaning wafer surfaces, especially surfaces of patterned wafers (or substrates). The cleaning materials, apparatus, and methods discussed have advantages in cleaning patterned substrates with fine features without substantially damaging the features. The cleaning material includes polymers of one or more polymeric compounds. The cleaning materials can be used in a wide range of viscosity and pH to clean different types of surfaces. The cleaning materials are in liquid phase, and deform around device features to capture the contaminants on the substrate. The polymers entrap the contaminants preventing their return to the substrate surface. The cleaning apparatus is designed to dispense and rinse cleaning materials with a range of viscosities.

Materials and systems for advanced substrate cleaning

The embodiments of the present invention provide improved materials for cleaning patterned substrates with fine features. The cleaning materials have advantages in cleaning patterned substrates with fine features without substantially damaging the features. The cleaning materials are fluid, either in liquid phase, or in liquid/gas phase, and deform around device features; therefore, the cleaning materials do not substantially damage the device features or reduce damage all together. To assist removing of particles from the wafer (or substrate) surfaces, the polymeric compound of the polymers can contain a polar functional group, which can establish polar-polar molecular interaction and hydrogen bonds with hydrolyzed particles on the wafer surface. The polymers of a polymeric compound(s) with a large molecular weight form long polymer chains and network. The long polymer chains and/or polymer network show superior capabilities of capturing and entrapping contaminants, in comparison to conventional cleaning materials. The polymeric compound(s) of the polymers may also include a functional group that carries charge in the cleaning solution. The charge of the functional group of the polymers improves the particle removal efficiency.

Composition of a cleaning material for particle removal

Growing community of inventors

El Cerrito, CA, United States of America

Ji Zhu