Applied Materials, Inc.

Maximillian Clemons

Srinivas D Nemani

Mehul B Naik

He Ren

Chentsau Chris Ying

Minrui Yu

Jong Mun Kim

Ellie Y Yieh

Mahendra Pakala

Qiwei Liang

Mei-Yee Shek

Bencherki Mebarki

Adib M Khan

Nikolaos Bekiaris

Sultan Malik

Michel Ranjit Frei

Generally, examples described herein relate to methods and processing systems for performing multiple processes in a same processing chamber on a flowable gap-fill film deposited on a substrate. In an example, a semiconductor processing system includes a processing chamber and a system controller. The system controller includes a processor and memory. The memory stores instructions, that when executed by the processor cause the system controller to: control a first process within the processing chamber performed on a substrate having thereon a film deposited by a flowable process, and control a second process within the process chamber performed on the substrate having thereon the film. The first process includes stabilizing bonds in the film to form a stabilized film. The second process includes densifying the stabilized film.

Multi-step process for flowable gap-fill film

Exemplary methods of etching semiconductor substrates may include flowing a halogen-containing precursor into a processing region of a semiconductor processing chamber. The processing region may house a substrate having a conductive material and an overlying mask material. The conductive material may be characterized by a first surface in contact with the mask material, and the mask material may define an edge region of the conductive material. The methods may include contacting the edge region of the conductive material with the halogen-containing precursor and the oxygen-containing precursor. The methods may include etching in a first etching operation the edge region of the conductive material to a partial depth through the conductive material to produce a footing of conductive material protruding along the edge region of the conductive material. The methods may also include removing the footing of conductive material in a second etching operation.

Damage free metal conductor formation

Methods for forming low resistivity metal silicide interconnects using one or a combination of a physical vapor deposition (PVD) process and an anneal process are described herein. In one embodiment, a method of forming a plurality of wire interconnects includes flowing a sputtering gas into a processing volume of a processing chamber, applying a power to a target disposed in the processing volume, forming a plasma in a region proximate to the sputtering surface of the target, and depositing the metal and silicon layer on the surface of the substrate. Herein, the first target comprises a metal silicon alloy and a sputtering surface thereof is angled with respect to a surface of the substrate at between about 10&#xb0; and about 50&#xb0;.

Methods of forming metal silicide layers and metal silicide layers formed therefrom

Embodiments of the systems and methods herein are directed towards forming, via ALD or CVD, a protective film in-situ on a plurality of interior components of a process chamber. The interior components coated with the protective film include a chamber sidewall, a chamber bottom, a substrate support pedestal, a showerhead, and a chamber top. The protective film can be of various compositions including amorphous Si, carbosilane, polysilicon, SiC, SiN, SiO, AlO, AlON, HfO, or NiAl, and can vary in thickness from about 80 nm to about 250 nm.

In-situ CVD and ALD coating of chamber to control metal contamination

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to a film treatment process. In one embodiment, a transition metal oxide layer including a dopant is deposited on a substrate. After the doped transition metal oxide layer is deposited, a high pressure annealing process is performed on the doped transition metal oxide layer to densify the doped transition metal oxide without outgassing of the dopant. The high pressure annealing process is performed in an ambient environment including the dopant and at a pressure greater than 1 bar.

Method to improve film stability

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Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Maximillian Clemons