Applied Materials, Inc.

Karthik Thimmavajjula Narasimha

Kwangduk Douglas Lee

Prashant Kumar Kulshreshtha

Juan Carlos Rocha-Alvarez

Bok Hoen Kim

Jianhua Zhou

Ziqing Duan

Jeongmin Lee

Hiroyuki Ogiso

Rick Gilbert

Ganesh Balasubramanian

Hari K Ponnekanti

Dale Robert Du Bois

Kalyanjit Ghosh

Paul Dennis Connors

Venkatanarayana Shankaramurthy

Mohsin Waqar

Saptarshi Basu

Liliya Krivulina

Brett Berens

Abdul Aziz Khaja

Vinay K Prabhakar

Zonghui Su

Sang Heon Park

Implementations of the present disclosure generally relate to the fabrication of integrated circuits. More particularly, the implementations described herein provide techniques for deposition of boron-carbon films on a substrate. In one implementation, a method of processing a substrate is provided. The method comprises flowing a hydrocarbon-containing gas mixture into a processing volume of a processing chamber having a substrate positioned therein, wherein the substrate is heated to a substrate temperature from about 400 degrees Celsius to about 700 degrees Celsius, flowing a boron-containing gas mixture into the processing volume and generating an RF plasma in the processing volume to deposit a boron-carbon film on the heated substrate, wherein the boron-carbon film has an elastic modulus of from about 200 to about 400 GPa and a stress from about −100 MPa to about 100 MPa.

Ultra-high modulus and etch selectivity boron-carbon hardmask films

Implementations of the present disclosure generally relate to the fabrication of integrated circuits. More particularly, the implementations described herein provide techniques for deposition of boron-carbon films on a substrate. In one implementation, a method of processing a substrate is provided. The method comprises flowing a hydrocarbon-containing gas mixture into a processing volume of a processing chamber having a substrate positioned therein, wherein the substrate is heated to a substrate temperature from about 400 degrees Celsius to about 700 degrees Celsius, flowing a boron-containing gas mixture into the processing volume and generating an RF plasma in the processing volume to deposit a boron-carbon film on the heated substrate, wherein the boron-carbon film has an elastic modulus of from about 200 to about 400 GPa and a stress from about &#x2212;100 MPa to about 100 MPa.

Implementations disclosed herein describe a bevel etch apparatus within a loadlock bevel etch chamber and methods of using the same. The bevel etch apparatus has a mask assembly within the loadlock bevel etch chamber. During an etch process, the mask assembly delivers a gas flow to control bevel etch without the use of a shadow frame. As such, the edge exclusion at the bevel edge can be reduced, thus increasing product yield.

Loadlock integrated bevel etcher system

Ultra-high modulus and etch selectivity boron carbon hardmask films

Implementations described herein generally relate to methods for leveling a component above a substrate. In one implementation, a test substrate is placed on a substrate support inside of a processing chamber. A component, such as a mask, is located above the substrate. The component is lowered to a position so that the component and the substrate are in contact. The component is then lifted and the particle distribution on the test substrate is reviewed. Based on the particle distribution, the component may be adjusted. A new test substrate is placed on the substrate support inside of the processing chamber, and the component is lowered to a position so that the component and the new test substrate are in contact. The particle distribution on the new test substrate is reviewed. The process may be repeated until a uniform particle distribution is shown on a test substrate.

Critical methodology in vacuum chambers to determine gap and leveling between wafer and hardware components

Growing community of inventors

San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Karthik Thimmavajjula Narasimha