The State University of New York

Jonathan Faltermeier

Alain E Kaloyeros

Andres Knorr

A chemical vapor deposition process for the in-situ preparation of conformal copper-doped aluminum coatings on a substrate comprises the steps of generating a first flow of a first reactant vapor directed to the substrate in the reactor, the first reactant vapor including a copper source precursor; heating the substrate to a temperature sufficient to decompose the first reactant vapor and form an ultrathin copper seed layer; generating a second flow of a second reactant vapor directed to the substrate in the reactor, the second reactant vapor including an aluminum source precursor; and heating the substrate to a temperature higher than 185&deg; C. to decompose the second reactant vapor and form a copper-doped aluminum film.

Methodology for in-situ doping of aluminum coatings

The present invention relates to a process and apparatus for the formation of conformal pure aluminum and doped aluminum coatings on a patterned substrate. It is directed to the use of low temperature thermal and plasma-promoted chemical vapor deposition techniques with biased substrate to provide conformal layers and bilayers comprised of pure Al and/or doped Al (e.g., Al with 0.5 at % copper) on semiconductor device substrates with patterned holes, vias, and trenches with aggressive aspect ratios (hole depth/hole width ratios). The use of the plasma-promoted CVD (PPCVD) process, which employs low plasma power densities, allows the growth of aluminum films with the smooth surface morphology and small grain size necessary for ULSI applications, while substrate bias provides superior coverage and complete aluminum fill of features intrinsic in microelectronic device manufacture. Aluminum doping is achieved by in-situ deposition by PPCVD of sequential bilayers of Al and Cu followed by in-situ annealing, or in-situ simultaneous PPCVD deposition of copper-doped aluminum.

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Fishkill, NY, United States of America

Jonathan Faltermeier