Applied Materials, Inc.

Sandisk Technologies Inc.

Jia Ye

Mei Yin Chang

Kai Wu

Vikash Banthia

Guoqiang Jian

Chi-Chou Lin

Jing Zhou

Jianmin Huang

Paul F Ma

Avgerinos V Gelatos

He Ren

Yu Lei

Wei V Tang

Kazuya Daito

Mrinal Kochar

Yi Xu

Raymond Hoiman Hung

David T Or

Xi Cen

Wenyu Zhang

Feiyue Ma

Jenn-Yue Wang

Yakuan Yao

Yiming Lai

The present disclosure generally relates to methods for processing of substrates, and more particularly relates to methods for forming a metal gapfill. In one implementation, the method includes forming a metal gapfill in an opening using a multi-step process. The multi-step process includes forming a first portion of the metal gapfill, performing a sputter process to form one or more layers on one or more side walls, and growing a second portion of the metal gapfill to fill the opening with the metal gapfill. The metal gapfill formed by the multi-step process is seamless, and the one or more layers formed on the one or more side walls seal any gaps or defects between the metal gapfill and the side walls. As a result, fluids utilized in subsequent processes do not diffuse through the metal gapfill.

Method for forming a metal gapfill

Methods and apparatus for reducing and eliminating defects in tungsten film are disclosed herein. In the present disclosure, reducing or eliminating oxidation of a first surface of a tungsten film having a predetermined first thickness disposed upon a substrate and within a plurality of trenches is disclosed. The plurality of trenches include a predetermined depth, and a width of less than 20 nanometers. The predetermined first thickness of the tungsten film is substantially uniform throughout the plurality of trenches such that the predetermined first thickness of the tungsten film does not substantially change to a second thickness when the first surface is contacted with air or oxygen.

Methods of reducing or eliminating defects in tungsten film

Data errors in non-volatile memory inevitably increase with usage and with higher density of bits stored per cell. The memory is configured to have a first portion operating with less error but of lower density storage, and a second portion operating with a higher density but less robust storage. An error management provides reading and checking the copy after copying to the second portion. If the copy has excessive error bits, it is repeated in a different location either in the second or first portion. The reading and checking of the copy is accelerated by reading only a sample of it. The sample is selected from a subset of the copy having its own ECC, where the sample selected depends on the count of erase-program cycles that a block has experienced, where different count ranges can use different samples.

Configurable accelerated post-write read to manage errors

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Jia Ye