Asm America, Inc.

Johan Swerts

Jan Willem Maes

Christophe F Pomarede

Cornelius A Van Der Jeugd

Yuet Mei Wan

Marinus J De Blank

Jacobus Johannes Beulens

Ruben Haverkort

Hilde De Witte

A nitrogen precursor that has been activated by exposure to a remotely excited species is used as a reactant to form nitrogen-containing layers. The remotely excited species can be, e.g., N, Ar, and/or He, which has been excited in a microwave radical generator. Downstream of the microwave radical generator and upstream of the substrate, the flow of excited species is mixed with a flow of NH. The excited species activates the NH. The substrate is exposed to both the activated NHand the excited species. The substrate can also be exposed to a precursor of another species to form a compound layer in a chemical vapor deposition. In addition, already-deposited layers can be nitrided by exposure to the activated NHand to the excited species, which results in higher levels of nitrogen incorporation than plasma nitridation using excited Nalone, or thermal nitridation using NHalone, with the same process temperatures and nitridation durations.

Remote plasma activated nitridation

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Kessel-lo, Belgium

Johan Swerts