Intermolecular, Inc.

Globalfoundries Inc.

Jingang Su

Ashish Bodke

Zhendong Hong

Usha Raghuram

Bin Yang

Dipankar Pramanik

Xunyuan Zhang

Chi-I Lang

Karl Anthony Littau

Minh Le

Olov B Karlsson

John S Foster

Anh Duong

Seon-Mee Cho

Mark V Raymond

Amol Ramesh Joshi

Sean Barstow

Vivian Ryan

Shouqian Shao

Sang M Lee

Edwin Adhiprakasha

Karthik Ramani

Charlene Chen

Bei Li

J Watanabe

Abhijit Pethe

Stuart Brinkley

Majid Gharghi

A co-sputter technique is used to deposit In&#x2014;Ga&#x2014;Zn&#x2014;O films using PVD. The films are deposited in an atmosphere including both oxygen and argon. A heater setpoint of about 300 C results in a substrate temperature of about 165 C. One target includes an alloy of In, Ga, Zn, and O with an atomic ratio of In:Ga:Zn of about 1:1:1. The second target includes a compound of zinc oxide. The films exhibit the c-axis aligned crystalline (CAAC) phase in an as-deposited state, without the need of a subsequent anneal treatment.

Method to grow in-situ crystalline IGZO using co-sputtering targets

Barrier layers, barrier stacks, and seed layers for small-scale interconnects (e.g., copper) are combinatorially screened using test structures sputtered or co-sputtered through apertures of varying size. Various characteristics (e.g., resistivity, crystalline morphology, surface roughness) related to conductivity, diffusion blocking, and adhesion are measured before and/or after annealing and compared to arrive at materials and process parameters for low diffusion with high conductivity through the interconnect. Example results show that some formulations of tantalum-titanium barriers may replace thicker tantalum/tantalum-nitride stacks, in some cases with a Cu&#x2014;Mn seed layer between the Ta&#x2014;Ti and copper.

Combinatorial screening of metallic diffusion barriers

Apparatus and methods for depositing materials on a plurality of site-isolated regions on a substrate are provided. The deposition uses PECVD or PEALD. The apparatus include an inner chamber with an aperture and barrier that can be used to isolate the regions during the deposition and prevent the remaining portions of the substrate from being exposed to the deposition process. The process parameters for the deposition process are varied among the site-isolate regions in a combinatorial manner.

Methods and apparatus for combinatorial PECVD or PEALD

Oxides (e.g., native or thermal silicon oxide) are etched from underlying silicon with a mixture of fluorine and oxygen radicals generated by a remote plasma. The oxygen radicals rapidly oxidize any uncovered bare silicon areas, preventing the pitting that can result from fluorine etching bare silicon more rapidly than it etches the surrounding oxide. A very thin (few &#x212b;), highly uniform passivation layer remaining on the silicon after the process may be left in place or removed. An oxygen-impermeable layer may be formed in-situ immediately afterward to prevent further oxidation. A pre-treatment with oxygen radicals alone fills pores and gaps in the oxide before etching begins.

Oxide removal by remote plasma treatment with fluorine and oxygen radicals

Methods and structures are described for determining contact resistivities and Schottky barrier heights for conductors deposited on semiconductor wafers that can be combined with combinatorial processing, allowing thereby numerous processing conditions and materials to be tested concurrently. Methods for using multi-ring as well as single-ring CTLM structures to cancel parasitic resistance are also described, as well as structures and processes for inline monitoring of properties.

Circular transmission line methods compatible with combinatorial processing of semiconductors

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Cupertino, CA, United States of America

Jingang Su