Tokyo Electron Limited

Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

Masanobu Matsunaga

Kazuhide Hasebe

Pao-Hwa Chou

Nobutake Nodera

Masato Yonezawa

Masayuki Hasegawa

Xinjian Lei

Manchao Xiao

Keisuke Suzuki

Hiroki Murakami

Jun Sato

Eugene Joseph Karwacki, Jr

Bing Han

Yamato Tonegawa

Hansong Cheng

Liu Yang

Koto Umezawa

Jun Satoh

Jaehyuk Jang

A substrate processing method of etching a SiN film formed on the substrate includes supplying a HF gas at a processing temperature of 450 degrees C. or higher to etch the SiN film.

Substrate processing method and substrate processing apparatus

A method for using a vertical film formation apparatus includes performing a coating process inside the process container without product target objects present therein to cover an inner surface of the process container with a coating film, and then performing a film formation process inside the process container accommodating the holder with the product target objects placed thereon to form a predetermined film on the product target objects. The coating process alternately supplies the first and second process gases into the process container without turning either of the first and second process gases into plasma. The film formation process alternately supplies the first and second process gases into the process container while turning at least one of the first and second process gases into plasma.

Vertical film formation apparatus and method for using same

This invention discloses the method of forming silicon nitride, silicon oxynitride, silicon oxide, carbon-doped silicon nitride, carbon-doped silicon oxide and carbon-doped oxynitride films at low deposition temperatures. The silicon containing precursors used for the deposition are monochlorosilane (MCS) and monochloroalkylsilanes. The method is preferably carried out by using plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition, plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition, and plasma enhanced cyclic chemical vapor deposition.

Low temperature deposition of silicon-containing films

A film formation method, in a vertical batch CVD apparatus, is preset to repeat a cycle a plurality of times to laminate thin films formed by respective times. The cycle alternately includes an adsorption step of adsorbing a source gas onto a surface of the target substrates and a reaction step of causing a reactive gas to react with the adsorbed source gas. The adsorption step is arranged to make a plurality of times a supply sub-step of performing supply of the source gas to the process field with an intermediate sub-step of stopping supply of the source gas to the process field interposed therebetween, while maintaining a shut-off state of supply of the reactive gas. The reaction step is arranged to continuously perform supply of the reactive gas to the process field, while maintaining a shut-off state of supply of the source gas.

Film formation method in vertical batch CVD apparatus

A film formation method includes setting a target object at a temperature of 150 to 550&#xb0; C., the target object being placed inside the process container configured to hold a vacuum state therein, and then, repeating a cycle alternately including a first supply step and a second supply step a plurality of times to form a silicon nitride film on the target object. The first supply step is a step of supplying monochlorosilane gas as an Si source into the process container while setting the process container at a pressure of 66.65 to 666.5 Pa therein. The second supply step is a step of supplying a nitrogen-containing gas as a nitriding gas into the process container.

Film formation method and apparatus

Disclosed is a method for using a film formation apparatus to form a silicon nitride film by CVD on target substrates while suppressing particle generation. The apparatus includes a process container and an exciting mechanism attached on the process container. The method includes conducting a pre-coating process by performing pre-cycles and conducting a film formation process by performing main cycles. Each of the pre-cycles and main cycles alternately includes a step of supplying a silicon source gas and a step of supplying a nitriding gas with steps of exhausting gas from inside the process container interposed therebetween. The pre-coating process includes no period of exciting the nitriding gas by the exciting mechanism. The film formation process repeats a first cycle set that excites the nitriding gas by the exciting mechanism and a second cycle that does not excite the nitriding gas by the exciting mechanism.

Film formation method and apparatus for semiconductor process

A method for using a film formation apparatus for a semiconductor process to form a thin film on a target substrate inside a reaction chamber includes performing a cleaning process to remove a by-product film deposited on a predetermined region in a gas route from a film formation gas supply system, which supplies a film formation gas contributory to film formation, through the reaction chamber to an exhaust system, by alternately repeating an etching step and an exhaust step a plurality of times in a state where the reaction chamber does not accommodate the target substrate. The etching step includes supplying a cleaning gas in an activated state for etching the by-product film onto the predetermined region, thereby etching the by-product film. The exhaust step includes stopping supply of the cleaning gas and exhausting gas by the exhaust system from a space in which the predetermined region is present.

Film formation apparatus and method for using same

A film formation method is used for forming a silicon nitride film on a target substrate by repeating a plasma cycle and a non-plasma cycle a plurality of times, in a process field configured to be selectively supplied with a first process gas containing a silane family gas and a second process gas containing a nitriding gas and communicating with an exciting mechanism for exciting the second process gas to be supplied. The method includes obtaining a relation formula or relation table that represents relationship of a cycle mixture manner of the plasma cycle and the non-plasma cycle relative to a film quality factor of the silicon nitride film; determining a specific manner of the cycle mixture manner based on a target value of the film quality factor with reference to the relation formula or relation table; and arranging the film formation process in accordance with the specific manner.

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Nirasaki, Japan

Masanobu Matsunaga