Applied Materials, Inc.

Kenny King-Tai Ngan

Barney M Cohen

Trung Tri Doan

Zheng Xu

Suraj Rengarajan

Xiangbing Li

Seshadri Ramaswami

Venkata R Balagani

Hougong Wang

Jingang Su

Peijun Ding

Keith A Miller

Dan A Marohl

Gongda Yao

Murali K Narasimhan

Peter Satitpunwaycha

Hien-Minh Huu Le

Hoa Thi Kieu

Vikram Pavate

Dinesh Saigal

Shankarram Athreya

Lisa L Yang

Jr-Jyan Chen

Ying Yin Hui

George Lazari

In a method of refurbishing a deposition target, a surface of the target is provided in a process zone. An electrical arc is generated in the process zone, and a consumable metal wire is inserted into the process zone to form liquefied metal. A pressurized gas is injected into the process zone to direct the liquefied metal toward the surface of the target to splatter the liquefied metal on the surface, thereby forming a coating having the metal on at least a portion of the surface of the target that exhibits reduced contamination from the environment.

Refurbishment of sputtering targets

A coated aluminum component for a substrate processing chamber comprises an aluminum component having a surface; a first aluminum oxide layer formed on the surface of the aluminum component, the aluminum oxide layer having a surface comprising penetrating surface features; and a second aluminum oxide layer on the first aluminum oxide layer, the second aluminum oxide layer substantially completely filling the penetrating surface features of the first aluminum oxide layer. A method of forming the coated aluminum component is also described.

Coating for aluminum component

A polishing pad conditioner comprises a base and a pad conditioning face on the base. The conditioning face comprises central and peripheral regions. Abrasive spokes having a substantially constant width of abrasive particles, extend from the central to the peripheral region. The spokes are symmetric and radially spaced apart from one another, and may have a variety of shapes. The conditioning face can also have a cutout inlet channel to receive polishing slurry when the conditioning face is rubbed against a polishing pad, a conduit to receive the polishing slurry from the cutout inlet channel, and an outlet on the peripheral edge of the base to discharge the received polishing slurry.

Polishing pad conditioner with shaped abrasive patterns and channels

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for precleaning a patterned substrate with a plasma comprising a mixture of argon, helium, and hydrogen. Addition of helium to the gas mixture of argon and hydrogen surprisingly increases the etch rate in comparison to argon/hydrogen mixtures. Etch rates are improved for argon concentrations below about 75% by volume. RF power is capacitively and inductively coupled to the plasma to enhance control of the etch properties. Argon, helium, and hydrogen can be provided as separate gases or as mixtures.

Plasma preclean with argon, helium, and hydrogen gases

In a magnetron sputtering chamber, a substrate is placed in the chamber and a deposition shield is maintained about the substrate to shield internal surfaces in the chamber. The deposition shield has a textured surface that may be formed by a hot pressing process or by a coating process, and that allows the accumulated sputtered residues to stick thereto without flaking off. An electrical power is applied to a high density sputtering target facing the substrate to form a plasma in the chamber while a rotating magnetic field of at least about 300 Gauss is applied about the target to sputter the target. Advantageously, the sputtering process cycle can be repeated for at least about 8,000 substrates without cleaning the internal surfaces in the chamber, and even while still generating an average particle count on each processed substrate of less than 1 particle per 10 cmof substrate surface area.

Reducing particle generation during sputter deposition

The present invention generally provides a method for improving fill and electrical performance of metals deposited on patterned dielectric layers. Apertures such as vias and trenches in the patterned dielectric layer are etched to enhance filling and then cleaned in the same chamber to reduce metal oxides within the aperture. The invention also provides cleaning the patterned dielectric layer in a processing chamber with a first plasma consisting essentially of argon, wherein the first plasma is generated by supplying power to a coil surrounding the processing chamber and supplying bias to a substrate support member supporting the substrate, cleaning the patterned dielectric layer in the processing chamber with a second plasma consisting essentially of hydrogen and helium, wherein the second plasma is generated by increasing the supply of power to the coil surrounding the processing chamber and reducing the supply of bias to the substrate support member supporting the substrate, depositing a barrier layer on the patterned dielectric layer after exposing the dielectric layer to the first plasma and the second plasma, and depositing a metal on the barrier layer. Furthermore, the sequential plasma treatments can be practiced in a variety of plasma processing chambers of an integrated process sequence, including pre-clean chambers, physical vapor deposition chambers, etch chambers, and other plasma processing chambers.

Sequential sputter and reactive precleans of vias and contacts

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for processing semiconductor wafers. The method includes preheating a semiconductor wafer in two types of chambers. In one embodiment, a first preheating chamber is a load lock and a second preheating chamber is a transition chamber. Semiconductor wafer processing systems which can perform embodiments of the method are presented.

Semiconductor wafer preheating

A recycled polishing pad conditioner comprises a base plate and a reversed abrasive disc that is flipped over from its original configuration. The reversed disc comprises an exposed abrasive face having an unused abrasive face comprising abrasive particles. A bond face of the disc is affixed to the base plate, the bond face comprising a used abrasive face that was previously used to condition polishing pads. Also described is a pad conditioner having an abrasive face comprising exposed portions of abrasive particles, with at least about 60% of the abrasive particles having a crystalline structure with substantially the same crystal symmetry.

Polishing pad conditioner and methods of manufacture and recycling

Increased sidewall coverage by a sputtered material is achieved by generating an ionizing plasma in a relatively low pressure sputtering gas. By reducing the pressure of the sputtering gas, it is believed that the ionization rate of the deposition material passing through the plasma is correspondingly reduced which in turn is believed to increase the sidewall coverage by the underlayer. Although the ionization rate is decreased, sufficient bottom coverage of the by the material is maintained. In an alternative embodiment, increased sidewall coverage by the material may be achieved even in a high density plasma chamber by generating the high density plasma only during an initial portion of the material deposition. Once good bottom coverage has been achieved, the RF power to the coil generating the high density plasma may be turned off entirely and the remainder of the deposition conducted without the high density plasma. Consequently, it has been found that good sidewall coverage is achieved in the latter part of the deposition.

Method and apparatus for improving sidewall coverage during sputtering in a chamber having an inductively coupled plasma

A positive pressure gradient is maintained across an open access port of an interface chamber such as a load lock chamber which provides an interface between a low pressure chamber such as a transfer or buffer chamber, and a high pressure area such as a staging area or factory interface area. When the access port of the interface chamber is open to the high-pressure area, the positive pressure gradient may be used in some applications to inhibit the flow of gasses from the high-pressure area into the interior of the interface chamber.

Method and apparatus for processing substrates in a system having high and low pressure areas

The invention is a precleaning process suitable for fabricating metal plugs in a low-&kgr;, carbon-containing dielectric. More specifically, the invention is a process for cleaning a contact area of a metal conductor on a semiconductor workpiece so as to minimize damage to a low-&kgr;, carbon-containing dielectric overlying the metal. After forming contact openings in the low-&kgr; dielectric so as to expose contact areas on the underlying metal conductor, the contact areas are cleaned by exposing the workpiece to an atmosphere formed by plasma decomposition of a mixture of hydrogen-containing and helium gases. Surprisingly, our preclean process can repair damage to the dielectric caused by preceding process steps, such as oxygen plasma ashing processes for removing photoresist.

Precleaning process for metal plug that minimizes damage to low-&kgr; dielectric

A method of forming solder bumps on a semiconductor wafer utilizing a low temperature biasable electrostatic chuck. In particular, the method comprises the steps of providing at least one bond pad on the semiconductor wafer, forming a barrier layer over the bond pad, and forming the solder bumps upon the at least one bond pad. By controlling the temperature and biasing of the electrostatic chuck, the barrier layer, such as nickel vanadium, exhibits a low tensile or compressive stress.

Method of forming solder bumps on a semiconductor wafer

The present disclosure pertains to particular Ti/TiN/TiN barrier/wetting layer structures which enable the warm aluminum filling of high aspect vias while providing an aluminum fill exhibiting a high degree of aluminum <111> crystal orientation. It has been discovered that an improved Ti/TiN/TiN barrier layer deposited using IMP techniques can be obtained by increasing the thickness of the first layer of Ti to range from greater than about 100 &angst; to about 500 &angst; (the feature geometry controls the upper thickness limit); by decreasing the thickness of the TiN second layer to range from greater than about 100 &angst; to less than about 800 &angst; (preferably less than about 600 &angst;); and, by controlling the application of the TiN third layer to provide a Ti content ranging from about 50 atomic percent titanium (stoichiometric) to about 100 atomic percent titanium. Preferably the TiN third layer is formed at the end of the deposition of the TiN second layer and exhibits a Ti content gradient which begins at a stoichiometric, 50 atomic percent, Ti content and ends at a Ti content of about 100 atomic percent. The thickness of the TiN third layer preferably ranges from about 15 &angst; to about 500 &angst;. The improved Ti/TiN/TiN barrier layer enables the deposit of a warm aluminum interconnect or a warm aluminum via fill where the aluminum exhibits a high <111> crystallographic content. Further, the aluminum layer obtained exhibits a reflectivity of 150 percent or greater at 436 nm. A Ti/TiN/TiN barrier layer having this structure, used to line a contact via, enables complete filling of via with sputtered warm aluminum, where the feature size of the via or aperture, is about 0.25 micron or less and the aspect ratio ranges from about 5:1 to as high as about 6:1.

Ti/Tinx underlayer which enables a highly <111> oriented aluminum interconnect

The present invention generally provides a method for stabilizing a halogen-doped silicon oxide film, particularly a fluorinated silicon oxide film. The invention also provides a method for preventing loosely bonded halogen atoms from reacting with components of the barrier layer during subsequent processing of the substrate. The invention provides a hydrogen plasma treatment of the halogen-doped silicon oxide film without subjecting the substrate to a heated environment that may damage the substrate and the structures formed on the substrate. The invention also improves the adhesion strength between the halogen-doped silicon oxide film and the barrier layer. Furthermore, the hydrogen plasma treatment can be practiced in a variety of plasma processing chambers of an integrated process sequence, including pre-clean chambers, physical vapor deposition chambers, chemical vapor deposition chambers, etch chambers and other plasma processing chambers.

Growing community of inventors

Fremont, CA, United States of America

Kenny King-Tai Ngan