Applied Materials, Inc.

Intermolecular, Inc.

Globalfoundries Inc.

Kevin Kashefi

Xiangjin Xie

Ashish Bodke

Mehul B Naik

Prashant B Phatak

He Ren

Yu Lei

Mark Harold Clark

Yi Xu

Dipankar Pramanik

Mark Joseph Saly

Avgerinos V Gelatos

Bhaskar Jyoti Bhuyan

Hao Chen

Kai Wu

Feng Chen

Frank Greer

David T Or

Xiaodong Wang

Lu Chen

Lin Dong

David Michael Thompson

Xi Cen

Mang-Mang Ling

Aaron Dangerfield

Jiajie Cen

Yiming Lai

Drew Phillips

Yakuan Yao

Michael L McSwiney

Paul Raymond Besser

Xianmin Tang

Rongjun Wang

Yixiong Yang

Olov B Karlsson

Martin Lee Riker

Sahil Patel

Amol Ramesh Joshi

Tae Hong Ha

Zhiyuan Wu

Tsung-Han Yang

Wei Lei

Ratsamee Limdulpaiboon

Albert Sanghyup Lee

Alexander Jansen

Bongki Lee

Wenjing Xu

Nobi Fuchigami

Suhas Bangalore Umesh

Aixi Zhang

Carmen Leal Cervantes

Zhimin Qi

J Watanabe

Shiyu Yue

Xingyao Gao

Divya Pisharoty

Abhijit Pethe

Ju Hyun Oh

Zheng Ju

Ge Qu

Yong Jin Kim

Junjie Pan

Yao Wu

Process chamber collimator

Methods for selectively depositing a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) on metallic surfaces are disclosed. Some embodiments of the disclosure utilize phenanthroline or a phenanthroline derivative to form the self-assembled monolayer. Some embodiments selective form the self-assembled monolayer on tungsten or molybdenum. Some embodiments utilize the self-assembled monolayer to selectively deposit on dielectric surfaces over metallic surfaces.

Self-assembled monolayer for selective deposition

A method of pre-cleaning in a semiconductor structure includes performing a plasma pre-treatment process to remove impurities from a surface of a semiconductor structure comprising a metal layer and a dielectric layer, performing a selective etch process to remove molybdenum oxide from a surface of the metal layer, the selective etch process comprising soaking the semiconductor structure in a precursor including molybdenum chloride (MoCl, MoCl) at a temperature of between 250° C. and 350° C., and performing a post-treatment process to remove chlorine residues and by-products of the selective etch process on the surface of the semiconductor structure.

Metal oxide preclean for bottom-up gapfill in MEOL and BEOL

Methods of forming devices comprise forming a dielectric layer on a substrate, the dielectric layer comprising at least one feature defining a gap including sidewalls and a bottom. A self-assembled monolayer (SAM) is formed on the bottom of the gap, and a barrier layer is formed on the SAM before selectively depositing a metal liner on the barrier layer. The SAM is removed after selectively depositing the metal liner on the barrier layer.

Method of forming a metal liner for interconnect structures

Methods for selectively depositing on metallic surfaces are disclosed. Some embodiments of the disclosure utilize a hydrocarbon having at least two functional groups selected from alkene, alkyne, ketone, hydroxyl, aldehyde, or combinations thereof to form a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) on metallic surfaces.

Selective blocking of metal surfaces using bifunctional self-assembled monolayers

Methods for selectively depositing on metallic surfaces are disclosed. Some embodiments of the disclosure utilize a hydrocarbon having at least two functional groups selected from alkene, alkyne, ketone, alcohol, ester, or combinations thereof to form a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) on metallic surfaces.

Methods and apparatus for processing a substrate are provided herein. For example, a physical vapor deposition processing chamber comprises a chamber body defining a processing volume, a substrate support disposed within the processing volume and comprising a substrate support surface configured to support a substrate, a power supply configured to energize a target for sputtering material toward the substrate, an electromagnet operably coupled to the chamber body and positioned to form electromagnetic filed lines through a sheath above the substrate during sputtering for directing sputtered material toward the substrate, and a controller operably coupled to the physical vapor deposition processing chamber for controlling the electromagnet based on a recipe comprising a pulsing schedule for pulsing the electromagnet during operation to control directionality of ions relative to a feature on the substrate.

Electromagnet pulsing effect on PVD step coverage

Methods and apparatus for forming a reverse selective etch stop layer are disclosed. Some embodiments of the disclosure provide interconnects with lower resistance than methods which utilize non-selective (e.g., blanket) etch stop layers. Some embodiments of the disclosure utilize reverse selective etch stop layers within a subtractive etch scheme. Some embodiments of the disclosure selectively deposit the etch stop layer by passivating the surface of the metal material.

Reverse selective etch stop layer

Methods for selectively depositing on metallic surfaces are disclosed. Some embodiments of the disclosure utilize a hydrocarbon having at least two functional groups, at least one functional group selected from amino groups, hydroxyl groups, ether linkages or combinations thereof to form a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) on metallic surfaces.

Methods for pre-cleaning substrates having metal and dielectric surfaces are described. The substrate is exposed to a strong reductant to remove contaminants from the metal surface and damage the dielectric surface. The substrate is then exposed to an oxidation process to repair the damage to the dielectric surface and oxidize the metal surface. The substrate is then exposed to a weak reductant to reduce the metal oxide to a pure metal surface without substantially affecting the dielectric surface. Processing tools and computer readable media for practicing the method are also described.

Multi-step pre-clean for selective metal gap fill

Selector elements that can be suitable for nonvolatile memory device applications are disclosed. The selector element can have low leakage currents at low voltages to reduce sneak current paths for non-selected devices, and higher leakage currents at higher voltages to minimize voltage drops during device switching. The selector element can be based on multilayer film stacks (e.g. metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) stacks). A structure including diamond-like carbon (DLC) can be used to surround the semiconductor layer of the MSM stack. The high thermal conductivity of the DLC structure may serve to remove heat from the selector device while higher currents are flowing through the selector element. This may lead to improved reliability and improved endurance.

Diamond like carbon (DLC) as a thermal sink in a selector stack for non-volatile memory application

Selector elements that can be suitable for nonvolatile memory device applications are disclosed. The selector element can have low leakage currents at low voltages to reduce sneak current paths for non-selected devices, and higher leakage currents at higher voltages to minimize voltage drops during device switching. The selector element can be based on multilayer film stacks (e.g. metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) stacks). The semiconductor layer of the selector element can include a photo-luminescent or electro-luminescent material. Conductive materials of the MSM may include tungsten, titanium nitride, carbon, or combinations thereof.

Photo-induced MSM stack

Native oxide growth on germanium, silicon germanium, and InGaAs undesirably affects CET (capacitive equivalent thickness) and EOT (effective oxide thickness) of high-k and low-k metal-oxide layers formed on these semiconductors. Even if pre-existing native oxide is initially removed from the bare semiconductor surface, some metal oxide layers are oxygen-permeable in thicknesses below about 25 &#x212b; thick. Oxygen-containing species used in the metal-oxide deposition process may diffuse through these permeable layers, react with the underlying semiconductor, and re-grow the native oxide. To eliminate or mitigate this re-growth, the substrate is exposed to a gas or plasma reductant (e.g., containing hydrogen). The reductant diffuses through the permeable layers to react with the re-grown native oxide, detaching the oxygen and leaving the un-oxidized semiconductor. The reduction product(s) resulting from the reaction may then be removed from the substrate (e.g., driven off by heat).

Reduction of native oxides by annealing in reducing gas or plasma

Selector elements that can be suitable for nonvolatile memory device applications are disclosed. The selector element can have low leakage currents at low voltages to reduce sneak current paths for non-selected devices, and higher leakage currents at higher voltages to minimize voltage drops during device switching. The selector element can include insulator layers between the semiconductor layer and the metal layers to lower the leakage current of the device. The metal layers of the selector element can include conductive materials such as tungsten, titanium nitride, or combinations thereof.

Tunneling barrier creation in MSM stack as a selector device for non-volatile memory application

Growing community of inventors

San Ramon, CA, United States of America

Kevin Kashefi