Applied Materials, Inc.

Masaki Ogata

Xinhai Han

Juan Carlos Rocha-Alvarez

Amit Kumar Bansal

Ganesh Balasubramanian

Bok Hoen Kim

Nagarajan Rajagopalan

Zhijun Jiang

Todd J Egan

Jianhua Zhou

Thomas E Nowak

Jian J Chen

Ramprakash Sankarakrishnan

Mohamad A Ayoub

Edward W Budiarto

Terrance Y Lee

Michael Wenyoung Tsiang

Jeongmin Lee

Patrick Reilly

Heung Lak Park

Shahid Shaikh

Sergey Starik

Dmitriy Panasyuk

Wenjiao Wang

Kristopher R Enslow

Deenesh Padhi

Daemian Raj Benjamin Raj

Shailendra Srivastava

Nikhil Sudhindrarao Jorapur

Sai Susmita Addepalli

Gregory Eugene Chichkanoff

Tza-Jing Gung

Mukund Srinivasan

Praket Prakash Jha

Jonghoon Baek

Hang Yu

Juan Carlos Rocha

Kaushik Comandoor Alayavalli

Yongjing Lin

Shaunak Mukherjee

Ndanka O Mukuti

Yusheng Zhou

Alok Jain

Chuanxi Yang

Chuan Ying Wang

Thuy Britcher

Joshua Maher

Allen Ko

Kesong Hu

Yinan Zhang

SeoYoung Lee

Zakaria Ibrahimi

Phaik Lynn Leong

Grace Qi En Teong

Exemplary methods of forming semiconductor structures may include forming a silicon oxide layer from a silicon-containing precursor and an oxygen-containing precursor. The methods may include forming a silicon nitride layer from a silicon-containing precursor, a nitrogen-containing precursor, and an oxygen-containing precursor. The silicon nitride layer may be characterized by an oxygen concentration greater than or about 5 at. %. The methods may also include repeating the forming a silicon oxide layer and the forming a silicon nitride layer to produce a stack of alternating layers of silicon oxide and silicon nitride.

Modified stacks for 3D NAND

A faceplate for a substrate process chamber comprises a first and second surface. The second surface is shaped such that the second surface includes a peak and a distance between the first and second surface varies across the width of the faceplate. The second surface of the faceplate is exposed to a processing volume of the process chamber. Further, the faceplate may be part of a lid assembly for the process chamber. The lid assembly may include a blocker plate facing the first surface of the faceplate. A distance between the blocker plate and the first surface is constant.

Faceplate having a curved surface

A method of processing a substrate according to a PECVD process is described. Temperature profile of the substrate is adjusted to change deposition rate profile across the substrate. Plasma density profile is adjusted to change deposition rate profile across the substrate. Chamber surfaces exposed to the plasma are heated to improve plasma density uniformity and reduce formation of low quality deposits on chamber surfaces. In situ metrology may be used to monitor progress of a deposition process and trigger control actions involving substrate temperature profile, plasma density profile, pressure, temperature, and flow of reactants.

PECVD process

An apparatus and a method for depositing a film layer that may have minimum contribution to overlay error after a sequence of deposition and lithographic exposure processes are provided. In one example, a method includes positioning a substrate on a substrate support in a process chamber, and flowing a deposition gas mixture comprising a silicon containing gas and a reacting gas to the process chamber through a showerhead having a convex surface facing the substrate support or a concave surface facing the substrate support in accordance with a stress profile of the substrate. A plasma is formed in the presence of the deposition gas mixture in the process chamber by applying an RF power to multiple coupling points of the showerhead that are symmetrically arranged about a center point of the showerhead. A deposition process is then performed on the substrate.

Film stack overlay improvement

Embodiments described herein relate to manufacturing layer stacks of oxide/nitride (ON) layers with minimized in-plane distortion (IPD) and lithographic overlay errors. A method of forming a layer stack ON layers includes flowing a first silicon-containing gas, an oxygen-containing gas, and a first dilution gas. A RF power is symmetrically applied to form a first material layer of SiO. A second silicon-containing gas, a nitrogen-containing gas, and a second dilution gas are flowed. A second RF power is symmetrically applied to form a second material layer of SiN. The flowing the first silicon-containing gas, the oxygen-containing gas, and the first dilution gas, the symmetrically applying the first RF power, the flowing the second silicon-containing gas, the nitrogen-containing gas, and the second dilution gas, and the symmetrically applying the second RF power is repeated until a desired number of first material layers and second material layers make up a layer stack.

On stack overlay improvement for 3D NAND

In one implementation, a method comprising depositing one or more silicon oxide/silicon nitride containing stacks on a substrate positioned in a processing chamber is provided. Depositing the one or more silicon oxide/silicon nitride containing stacks comprises (a) energizing a first process gas into a first plasma, (b) depositing a first film layer over the substrate from the first plasma, (c) energizing a second process gas into a second plasma, wherein the second process gas comprises a compound having at least one silicon-nitrogen bond and (d) depositing a second film layer on the first film layer from the second plasma. The method further comprises repeating (a), (b), (c), and (d) until a predetermined number of first film layers and second film layers have been deposited on the substrate. The first film layer is a silicon oxide layer and the second film layer is a silicon nitride layer.

High deposition rate and high quality nitride

A method and apparatus for a dual-channel showerhead is provided. In one embodiment the showerhead comprises a body comprising a conductive material having a plurality of first openings formed therethrough comprising a first gas channel and a plurality of second openings formed therethrough comprising a second gas channel that is fluidly separated from the first gas channel, wherein each of the first openings having a geometry that is different than each of the second openings.

Dual-channel showerhead for formation of film stacks

Apparatus and method of processing a substrate according to a PECVD process is described. Temperature profile of the substrate is adjusted to change deposition rate profile across the substrate. Plasma density profile is adjusted to change deposition rate profile across the substrate. Chamber surfaces exposed to the plasma are heated to improve plasma density uniformity and reduce formation of low quality deposits on chamber surfaces. In situ metrology may be used to monitor progress of a deposition process and trigger control actions involving substrate temperature profile, plasma density profile, pressure, temperature, and flow of reactants.

PECVD apparatus and process

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Masaki Ogata