Lam Research Corporation

Applied Materials, Inc.

Cadence Design Systems, Inc.

Jun Qian

Adrien Lavoie

Hu Kang

Purushottam Kumar

Shankar Swaminathan

Frank Loren Pasquale

David Charles Smith

Ishtak Karim

Chloe Baldasseroni

Bart Jan Van Schravendijk

Karl Frederick Leeser

Dennis Michael Hausmann

Seiji Matsuyama

Adrien LaVoie

Jennifer Leigh Petraglia

Andrew Duvall

Wanki Kim

Tuan Anh Nguyen

Bhadri N Varadarajan

Reza Arghavani

Samantha SiamHwa Tan

Douglas L Keil

Edward J Augustyniak

Ananda K Banerji

Sesha Varadarajan

Ted Minshall

Jeremiah Baldwin

Fung Suong Ou

Deenesh Padhi

Ramesh Chandrasekharan

Romuald Nowak

Sung Je Kim

Wei Tang

You Zhai

Ye Wang

Yi Chung Chiu

Wei-Chih Lai

Seshasayee Varadarajan

Mehran Behdjat

Bruce W McGaughy

Mohamed Sabri

Koji Nakanishi

Paul Franzen

Jun Kong

Bart K Van Schravendijk

Jeongseok Ha

Eashwar Ranganathan

Masamori Sanaka

Heather Landis

Ingi Bae

Trung T Le

Kiyong Cho

Jaswinder Guliani

Ryan Murdoch

Philip Mathew

Yuchun Chang

George Govel

Mark David Johnson

Methods and apparatuses for controlling precursor flow in a semiconductor processing tool are disclosed. A method may include flowing gas through a gas line, opening an ampoule valve(s), before a dose step, to start a flow of precursor from the ampoule to a process chamber through the gas line, closing the ampoule valve(s) to stop the precursor from flowing out of the ampoule, opening a process chamber valve, at the beginning of the dose step, to allow the flow of precursor to enter the process chamber, and closing the process chamber valve, at the end of the dose step, to stop the flow of precursor from entering the process chamber. A controller may include at least one memory and at least one processor and the at least one memory may store instructions for controlling the at least one processor to control precursor flow in a semiconductor processing tool.

Dynamic precursor dosing for atomic layer deposition

Methods and apparatus for lamp housing crack detection are provided herein. For example, a method associated with a process chamber having a lamp housing comprises sequentially processing a plurality of substrates in the process chamber, during processing of the plurality of substrates, collecting lamp housing data indicative of a fluid leak in the lamp housing from a sensor operably connected to the lamp housing of the process chamber, determining from the lamp housing data whether lamp housing crack is present, and responsive to determining lamp housing crack is present, at least one of triggering an alert or stopping processing of the process chamber.

Method and apparatus for lamp housing crack detection

Methods for depositing films by atomic layer deposition using aminosilanes are provided.

Ultrathin atomic layer deposition film accuracy thickness control

Provided herein are methods and apparatus for filling one or more gaps on a semiconductor substrate. The disclosed embodiments are especially useful for forming seam-free, void-free fill in both narrow and wide features. The methods may be performed without any intervening etching operations to achieve a single step deposition. In various implementations, a first operation is performed using a novel PEALD fill mechanism to fill narrow gaps and line wide gaps. A second operation may be performed using PECVD methods to continue filling the wide gaps.

Gapfill of variable aspect ratio features with a composite PEALD and PECVD method

Methods and apparatuses for depositing approximately equal thicknesses of a material on at least two substrates concurrently processed in separate stations of a multi-station deposition apparatus are provided.

Variable cycle and time RF activation method for film thickness matching in a multi-station deposition system

Methods for depositing ultrathin films by atomic layer deposition with reduced wafer-to-wafer variation are provided. Methods involve exposing the substrate to soak gases including one or more gases used during a plasma exposure operation of an atomic layer deposition cycle prior to the first atomic layer deposition cycle to heat the substrate to the deposition temperature.

Method of atomic layer deposition

Methods of depositing uniform films on substrates using multi-cyclic atomic layer deposition techniques are described. Methods involve varying one or more parameter values from cycle to cycle to tailor the deposition profile. For example, some methods involve repeating a first ALD cycle using a first carrier gas flow rate during precursor exposure and a second ALD cycle using a second carrier gas flow rate during precursor exposure. Some methods involve repeating a first ALD cycle using a first duration of precursor exposure and a second ALD cycle using a second duration of precursor exposure.

Multi-cycle ALD process for film uniformity and thickness profile modulation

A method for delivering vaporized precursor in a substrate processing system using a vapor delivery system includes (a) selectively supplying push gas to an inlet of an ampoule storing liquid and vaporized precursor during a deposition period of a substrate; (b) measuring a pressure of the push gas and the vaporized precursor at an outlet of the ampoule during the deposition period; (c) determining a maximum pressure during the deposition period; (d) determining an integrated area for the deposition period based on a sampling interval and the maximum pressure during the sampling interval; and (e) repeating (a), (b), (c) and (d) for a plurality of the deposition periods for the substrate.

Systems and methods for flow monitoring in a precursor vapor supply system of a substrate processing system

A substrate processing system includes: a processing chamber defining a reaction volume; a showerhead including: a stem portion having one end connected adjacent to an upper surface of the processing chamber; and a base portion connected to an opposite end of the stem portion and extending radially outwardly from the stem portion, where the showerhead is configured to introduce gas into the reaction volume; a plasma generator configured to selectively generate RF plasma in the reaction volume; and a collar arranged around the stem portion of the showerhead between the base portion of the showerhead and the upper surface of the processing chamber. The collar includes one or more holes to supply purge gas from an inner cavity of the collar to between the base portion of the showerhead and the upper surface of the processing chamber.

Systems and methods for suppressing parasitic plasma and reducing within-wafer non-uniformity

Methods for depositing films by atomic layer deposition using cyclic siloxane precursors are provided. Methods involve exposing the substrate to a cyclic siloxane precursor during operation of an atomic layer deposition cycle to form silicon oxide.

Disclosed herein are methods of doping a fin-shaped channel region of a partially fabricated 3-D transistor on a semiconductor substrate. The methods may include forming a multi-layer dopant-containing film on the substrate, forming a capping film comprising a silicon carbide material, a silicon nitride material, a silicon carbonitride material, or a combination thereof, the capping film located such that the multi-layer dopant-containing film is located in between the substrate and the capping film, and driving dopant from the dopant-containing film into the fin-shaped channel region. Multiple dopant-containing layers of the film may be formed by an atomic layer deposition process which includes adsorbing a dopant-containing film precursor such that it forms an adsorption-limited layer on the substrate and reacting adsorbed dopant-containing film precursor. Also disclosed herein are multi-station substrate processing apparatuses for doping the fin-shaped channel regions of partially fabricated 3-D transistors.

Capped ALD films for doping fin-shaped channel regions of 3-D IC transistors

Growing community of inventors

Sherwood, OR, United States of America

Jun Qian