Applied Materials, Inc.

Jon Christian Farr

Sharma V Pamarthy

Ajay Kumar

Saravjeet Singh

Jiao Yang

Roy C Nangoy

Abhishek Chowdhury

Ravikumar Patil

Alfredo Granados

Khalid Mohiuddin Sirajuddin

Heng Wang

Ruizhe Ren

Kyle Moran Hanson

Digvijay Ashokkumar Raorane

Yi Zheng

Siqing Lu

Rongping Wang

Eller Y Juco

Manoj A Gajendra

Arun Chakravarthy Chakravarthy

Mahadev Joshi

Chethan Mangalore

Peter Demonte

Arvind Thiyagarajan

Zhigang Wang

Zhi Gang Wang

Rui Zhe Ren

Saravanan Chandrabalu

Prabhuraj Kuberan

Parthiban Balakrishna

Methods and apparatus for processing a substrate are provided herein. For example, an apparatus for processing a substrate comprises a top delivery gas nozzle configured to direct process gas toward a substrate support surface of a substrate support and a side delivery gas nozzle configured to direct the process gas toward a side surface of the substrate support, a first gas line connected to the top delivery gas nozzle, a second gas line connected to the side delivery gas nozzle, and a plurality of valves connected to the first gas line and the second gas line for providing process gas to the processing volume of the processing chamber, and a first orifice flow restrictor or a first needle valve connected to the first gas line or a second orifice flow restrictor or a second needle valve connected to the second gas line.

Methods and apparatus for processing a substrate

An apparatus and method for etching a material layer with a cyclic etching and deposition process. The method for etching a material layer on a substrate includes: (a) etching at least a portion of a material layer () on a substrate () in an etch chamber () to form an open feature () having a bottom surface () and sidewalls in the material layer (); (b) forming a protection layer () on the sidewalls and the bottom surface () of the open feature () from a protection layer () gas mixture comprising at least one carbon-fluorine containing gas; (c) selectively removing the protection layer () formed on the bottom surface () of the open feature () from a bottom surface () open gas mixture comprising the carbon-fluorine containing gas; and (d) continuingly etching the material layer () from the bottom surface () of the open feature () until a desired depth of the open feature () is reached.

Methods for etching a material layer for semiconductor applications

Embodiments of fast gas exchange (FGE) manifolds are provided herein. In some embodiments, a FGE manifold includes: a manifold housing having a plurality of inlets and a plurality of outlets for flowing a plurality of process gases therethrough, wherein the plurality of outlets correspond with a plurality of zones in the process chamber; a plurality of hybrid valves disposed in the manifold housing and fluidly coupled to the plurality of inlets; a plurality of mass flow controllers disposed in the manifold housing downstream of the plurality of hybrid valves; a plurality of mixing lines extending downstream from the plurality of mass flow controllers to a plurality of outlet lines; and a plurality of outlet valves disposed in line with corresponding ones of the plurality of outlet lines, wherein a flow path is defined between each inlet of the plurality of inlets and each outlet of the plurality of outlets.

Mass flow controller based fast gas exchange

A method of cyclic etching, comprising: (A) depositing, prior to cyclically etching a substrate through a mask opening, a pre-etch protection layer conformally over the mask, sidewalls of the mask defining the mask opening; and an exposed portion of the substrate exposed through the mask opening, the pre-etch protection layer deposited to a first thickness; and (B) cyclically etching the substrate by: (i) depositing a protection layer in the opening of the mask, the protection layer deposited to a second thickness that is less than half of the first thickness; (ii) etching through a portion of the protection layer disposed on the substrate and etching the substrate; and (iii) repeating (i) and (ii) until an end point is reached.

Method of depositing a pre-etch protective layer

Methods and apparatus for removing substrate contamination are provided herein. In some embodiments, a multi-chamber processing apparatus includes: a processing chamber for processing a substrate; a factory interface (FI) coupled to the processing chamber via a load lock chamber disposed therebetween; and a cleaning chamber coupled to the FI and configured to rinse and to dry the substrate, wherein the cleaning chamber includes a chamber body defining an interior volume and having a first opening at an interface with the FI for transferring the substrate into and out of the interior volume.

Methods and apparatus for cleaning a substrate after processing

Embodiments of the present disclosure include a radial frequency plasma source having a split type inner coil assembly. In one embodiment, the split type inner coil assembly comprises two intertwining coils. In another embodiment, the split type inner coil assembly includes looped coils forming a dome.

Source RF power split inner coil to improve BCD and etch depth performance

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to method and apparatus for providing processing gases to a process chamber with improved plasma dissociation efficiency. One embodiment of the present disclosure provides a baffle nozzle assembly comprising an outer body defining an extension volume connected to a processing chamber. A processing gas is flown to the processing chamber through the extension volume which is exposed to power source for plasma generation.

Method and apparatus for high efficiency gas dissociation in inductive coupled plasma reactor

A method of smoothing the sidewalls of an etched feature using reactive plasma milling. The method of smoothing reduces the depth of sidewall notching, which causes the roughness on the feature wall surface. The method comprises removing residual polymeric materials from the interior and exterior surfaces of said silicon-comprising feature and treating the interior surface of the silicon-comprising feature with a reactive plasma generated from a source gas while the silicon-comprising feature is biased with a pulsed RF power. The source gas includes a reagent which reacts with the silicon and an inert gas. The method provides a depth of a notch on the interior surface of about 500 nm or less.

Post etch reactive plasma milling to smooth through substrate via sidewalls and other deeply etched features

Embodiments of the present invention relate to method and apparatus for providing processing gases to a process chamber with improved plasma dissociation efficiency. One embodiment of the present invention provides a baffle nozzle assembly comprising an outer body defining an extension volume connected to a processing chamber. A processing gas is flown to the processing chamber through the extension volume which is exposed to power source for plasma generation.

Method and apparatus for high efficiency gas dissociation in inductive couple plasma reactor

Methods of forming deep trenches in substrates are described. A method includes providing a substrate with a patterned film disposed thereon, the patterned film including a trench having a first width and a pair of sidewalls, the trench exposing the top surface of the substrate. The method also includes forming a material layer over the patterned film and conformal with the trench. The method also includes etching the material layer to form sidewall spacers along the pair of sidewalls of the trench, the sidewall spacers reducing the first width of the trench to a second width. The method also includes etching the substrate to form a deep trench in the substrate, the deep trench undercutting at least a portion of the sidewall spacers.

Method of forming a deep trench in a substrate

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Tempe, AZ, United States of America

Jon Christian Farr