Applied Materials, Inc.

Joshua Rubnitz

Srinivas D Nemani

Bhargav S Citla

Ellie Y Yieh

Jethro Tannos

Soham Sunjay Asrani

Kartik Ramaswamy

Yang Yang

Douglas A Buchberger, Jr

Chentsau Chris Ying

Mei-Yee Shek

Nikolaos Bekiaris

Erica Chen

Methods and apparatus for forming an integrated circuit structure, comprising: delivering a process gas to a process volume of a process chamber; applying low frequency RF power to an electrode formed from a high secondary electron emission coefficient material disposed in the process volume; generating a plasma comprising ions in the process volume; bombarding the electrode with the ions to cause the electrode to emit electrons and form an electron beam; and contacting a dielectric material with the electron beam to cure the dielectric material, wherein the dielectric material is a flowable chemical vapor deposition product. In embodiments, the curing stabilizes the dielectric material by reducing the oxygen content and increasing the nitrogen content of the dielectric material.

Method for forming integrated circuit structures

Exemplary processing methods may include forming a plasma of a silicon-containing precursor. The methods may include depositing a flowable film on a semiconductor substrate with plasma effluents of the silicon-containing precursor. The processing region may be at least partially defined between a faceplate and a substrate support on which the semiconductor substrate is seated. A bias power may be applied to the substrate support from a bias power source. The methods may include forming a plasma of a hydrogen-containing precursor within the processing region of the semiconductor processing chamber. The methods may include etching the flowable film from a sidewall of the feature within the semiconductor substrate with plasma effluents of the hydrogen-containing precursor. The methods may include densifying remaining flowable film within the feature defined within the semiconductor substrate with plasma effluents of the hydrogen-containing precursor.

Directional selective deposition

Methods and apparatus for depositing a dielectric material include: providing a first gas mixture into a processing chamber having a substrate disposed therein; forming a first remote plasma comprising first radicals in a remote plasma source and delivering the first radicals to an interior processing region in the processing chamber to form a layer of dielectric material in an opening in a material layer disposed on the substrate in a presence of the first gas mixture and the first radicals; terminating the first remote plasma and applying a first RF bias power to the processing chamber to form a first bias plasma; contacting the layer of dielectric material with the first bias plasma to form a first treated layer of dielectric material; and subsequently forming a second remote plasma comprising second radicals in the remote plasma source and delivering the second radicals to the interior processing region in the processing chamber in a presence of a second gas mixture while applying a second RF bias power to the processing chamber to form a second bias plasma, wherein the second radicals and second bias plasma contact the first treated layer of dielectric material to increase a hydrophobicity or a viscosity of the first treated layer of dielectric material.

Methods and apparatus for depositing dielectric material

Methods and apparatus for processing a substrate are provided herein. For example, a method includes supplying a vaporized precursor into a processing volume, supplying activated elements including ions and radicals from a remote plasma source, energizing the activated elements using RF source power at a first duty cycle to react with the vaporized precursor to deposit an SiNHfilm onto a substrate disposed in the processing volume, supplying a first process gas from the remote plasma source while providing RF bias power at a second duty cycle different from the first duty cycle to the substrate support to convert the SiNHfilm to an SiOx film, supplying a process gas mixture formed from a second process gas supplied from the remote plasma source and a third process gas supplied from the gas supply while providing RF bias power at the second duty cycle to the substrate support, and annealing the substrate.

Methods and apparatus for processing a substrate

Methods for plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) of silicon carbonitride films are described. A flowable silicon carbonitride film is formed on a substrate surface by exposing the substrate surface to a precursor and a reactant, the precursor having a structure of general formula (I) or general formula (II) wherein R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, and Rare independently selected from hydrogen (H), substituted or unsubstituted alkyl, substituted or unsubstituted alkoxy, substituted or unsubstituted vinyl, silane, substituted or unsubstituted amine, or halide; purging the processing chamber of the silicon precursor, and then exposing the substrate to an ammonia plasma.

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Monte Sereno, CA, United States of America

Joshua Rubnitz