Applied Materials, Inc.

Kiran V Thadani

Abhijit Basu Mallick

Nitin K Ingle

Jingmei Liang

Mehul B Naik

Zhenjiang Cui

Pramit Manna

Pravin K Narwankar

Abhishek Dube

Young Seen Lee

Mukund Srinivasan

Nagarajan Rajagopalan

Dongqing Yang

Xiaolin C Chen

Sanjay G Kamath

Jing Tang

Jessica Sevanne Kachian

Joe Griffith Cruz

Jingjing Xu

Brian Saxton Underwood

Amit Chatterjee

A method of reducing line bending and surface roughness of a substrate with pillars includes forming a treated surface by treating a pillar-containing substrate with a radical. The radical may be silicon-based, nitrogen-based or oxygen-based. The method may include forming a dielectric film over the treated surface by reacting an organosilicon precursor and an oxygen precursor. The method may include curing the dielectric film at a temperature of about 150&#xb0; C. or less. A method of reducing line bending and surface roughness of a substrate with pillars includes forming a dielectric film over a pillar-containing substrate by reacting an organosilicon precursor, an oxygen precursor, and a radical precursor. The method may include curing the dielectric film at a temperature of about 150&#xb0; C. or less. The radical precursor may be selected from the group consisting of nitrogen-based radical precursor, oxygen-based radical precursor, and silicon-based radical precursor.

FCVD line bending resolution by deposition modulation

Implementations described herein generally relate to methods for dielectric gap-fill. In one implementation, a method of depositing a silicon oxide layer on a substrate is provided. The method comprises introducing a cyclic organic siloxane precursor and an aliphatic organic siloxane precursor into a deposition chamber, reacting the cyclic organic siloxane precursor and the aliphatic organic siloxane precursor with atomic oxygen to form the silicon oxide layer on a substrate positioned in the deposition chamber, wherein the substrate is maintained at a temperature between about 0&#xb0; C. and about 200&#xb0; C. as the silicon oxide layer is formed, wherein the silicon oxide layer is initially flowable following deposition, and wherein a ratio of a flow rate of the cyclic organic siloxane precursor to a flow rate of the aliphatic organic siloxane precursor is at least 2:1 and curing the deposited silicon oxide layer.

Low temperature cure modulus enhancement

Methods are described for forming a flowable low-k dielectric layer on a patterned substrate. The film may be a silicon-carbon-oxygen (Si&#x2014;C&#x2014;O) layer in which the silicon and carbon constituents come from a silicon and carbon containing precursor while the oxygen may come from an oxygen-containing precursor activated in a remote plasma region. A similarly deposited silicon oxide layer may be deposited first to improve the gapfill capabilities. Alternatively, or in combination, the flow of a silicon-and-carbon-containing precursor may be reduced during deposition to change the properties from low-k to high strength roughly following the filling of features of the patterned substrate.

Low-K dielectric gapfill by flowable deposition

Methods are described for forming a flowable low-k dielectric film on a patterned substrate. The film may be a silicon-carbon-oxygen (Si&#x2014;C&#x2014;O) layer in which the silicon and carbon constituents come from a silicon and carbon containing precursor while the oxygen may come from an oxygen-containing precursor activated in a remote plasma region. Shortly after deposition, the silicon-carbon-oxygen layer is treated by exposure to a hydrogen-and-nitrogen-containing precursor such as ammonia prior to curing. The treatment may remove residual moisture from the silicon-carbon-oxygen layer and may make the lattice more resilient during curing and subsequent processing. The treatment may reduce shrinkage of the silicon-carbon-oxygen layer during subsequent processing.

Flowable low-k dielectric gapfill treatment

Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to methods for forming a metal structure and passivation layers. In one embodiment, metal columns are formed on a substrate. The metal columns are doped with manganese, aluminum, zirconium, or hafnium. A dielectric material is deposited over and between the metal columns and then cured to form a passivation layer on vertical surfaces of the metal columns.

Integrated cluster to enable next generation interconnect

A method of forming and controlling air gaps between adjacent raised features on a substrate includes forming a silicon-containing film in a bottom region between the adjacent raised features using a flowable deposition process. The method also includes forming carbon-containing material on top of the silicon-containing film and forming a second film over the carbon-containing material using a flowable deposition process. The second film fills an upper region between the adjacent raised features. The method also includes curing the materials at an elevated temperature for a period of time to form the air gaps between the adjacent raised features. The thickness and number layers of films can be used to control the thickness, vertical position and number of air gaps.

Controlled air gap formation

A method of forming a dielectric layer is described. The method deposits a silicon-containing film by chemical vapor deposition using a local plasma. The silicon-containing film is flowable during deposition at low substrate temperature. A silicon precursor (e.g. a silylamine, higher order silane or halogenated silane) is delivered to the substrate processing region and excited in a local plasma. A second plasma vapor or gas is combined with the silicon precursor in the substrate processing region and may include ammonia, nitrogen (N), argon, hydrogen (H) and/or oxygen (O). The equipment configurations disclosed herein in combination with these vapor/gas combinations have been found to result in flowable deposition at substrate temperatures below or about 200&#xb0; C. when a local plasma is excited using relatively low power.

Low cost flowable dielectric films

Methods of dry etching silicon-containing dielectric films are described. The methods include maintaining a relatively high temperature of the dielectric films while etching in order to achieve reduced solid residue on the etched surface. Partially or completely avoiding the accumulation of solid residue increases the etch rate.

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Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Kiran V Thadani