Applied Materials, Inc.

Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

Other

Michael P Nault

Timothy Weidman

Scott Jeffrey Weigel

Alexandros T Demos

Robert Parkash Mandal

Nikolaos Bekiaris

Yunfeng Lu

James Edward MacDougall

Hareesh Thridandam

Lee Arthur Senecal

Kaushal Kishore Singh

Kevin Ray Heier

Anthony Lam

Soonil Hong

Choon Kun Ryu

Andrew Conners

Michael S Barnes

Bok Hoen Kim

Thomas E Nowak

Tsutomu Tanaka

Farhad K Moghadam

Martin Jay Seamons

Virendra V Rana

Moshe Sarfaty

Virendra V S Rana

Josephine J Chang

Nam Le

James Edward Mac Dougall

Ameeta Madhava

James E MacDougal

A process for depositing porous silicon oxide-based films using a sol-gel approach utilizing a precursor solution formulation which includes a purified nonionic surfactant and an additive among other components, where the additive is either an ionic additive or an amine additive which forms an ionic ammonium type salt in the acidic precursor solution. Using this precursor solution formulation enables formation of a film having a dielectric constant less than 2.5, appropriate mechanical properties, and minimal levels of alkali metal impurities. In one embodiment, this is achieved by purifying the surfactant and adding ionic or amine additives such as tetraalkylammonium salts and amines to the stock precursor solution.

Ionic additives for extreme low dielectric constant chemical formulations

A process for depositing porous silicon oxide-based films using a sol-gel approach utilizing a precursor solution formulation which includes a purified nonionic surfactant and an additive among other components, where the additive is either an ionic additive or an amine additive which forms an ionic ammonium type salt in the acidic precursor solution. Using this precursor solution formulation enables formation of a film having a dielectric constant less than 2.5, appropriate mechanical properties, and minimal levels of alkali metal impurities. In one embodiment, this is achieved by purifying the surfactant and adding ionic or amine additives such as tetraalkylammonium salts and amines to the stock precursor solution. In some embodiments, the ionic additive is a compound chosen from a group of cationic additives of the general composition [NR(CH)]A, where R is a hydrophobic ligand of chain length 1 to 24, including tetramethylammonium and cetyltrimethylammonium, and Ais an anion, which may be chosen from the group consisting essentially of formate, nitrate, oxalate, acetate, phosphate, carbonate, and hydroxide and combinations thereof. Tetramethylammonium salts, or more generally tetraalkylammonium salts, or tetraorganoammonium salts or organoamines in acidic media are added to surfactant templated porous oxide precursor formulations to increase the ionic content, replacing alkali ion impurities (sodium and potassium) removed during surfactant purification, but which are found to exhibit beneficial effects in promoting the formation of the resulting dielectric.

Specific embodiments of the invention provide a silicon-carbide-type or silicon oxycarbide (also often called carbon-doped-oxide [CDO] or organosilicate glass) capping material and method for depositing this capping material on ELK films which are used as a dielectric material in integrated circuits. The ELK film may include any ELK film including but not limited to inorganic, organic and hybrid dielectric materials and their respective porous versions. The silicon-carbide-type material may be an amorphous silicon carbide type material such as the commercially available BLOk&#x2122; material, or a carbon-doped oxide material such as the commercially available Black Diamond&#x2122; both of which are developed by Applied Materials of Santa Clara, Calif. The amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC) material is deposited using a plasma process in a non-oxidizing environment and the CDO-type material is deposited using an oxygen-starved plasma process. The non-oxidative or oxygen-starved plasma processes do not significantly degrade the underlying film's chemical and electrical properties. The CDO material offers the advantageous property of having a lower dielectric constant value of less than 3.5 as opposed to the a-SiC material which has a dielectric constant of approximately 4.5. The CDO material besides, having a lower dielectric constant also has a superior adhesion characteristics to the underlying ELK material. However, experiments have indicated that despite its higher dielectric constant, the a-SiC-type material (e.g. BLOk&#x2122;) may be used to generate capped ELK films with similar or even reduced dielectric constants relative to lower k capped films, and may provide composite (i.e. ELK+cap) structures exhibiting superior k stability.

Capping layer for extreme low dielectric constant films

In a substrate processing apparatus, a substrate processing chamber has a substrate support to support a substrate, a gas delivery system to provide an energized cleaning gas to the chamber to clean process residues formed on surfaces in the chamber during processing of the substrate, and an exhaust to exhaust the cleaning gas. A detector monitors a chemiluminescent radiation emitted from about a surface during cleaning of the process residues by the energized cleaning gas and generates a signal in relation to the monitored chemiluminescent radiation. A controller receives the signal and evaluates the signal to determine an endpoint of the cleaning process.

Detecting chemiluminescent radiation in the cleaning of a substrate processing chamber

A process provides a ceramic film, such as a mesoporous silica film, on a substrate, such as a silicon wafer. The process includes preparing a film-forming fluid containing a ceramic precursor, a catalyst, a surfactant and a solvent, depositing the film-forming fluid on the substrate, and removing the solvent from the film-forming fluid on the substrate to produce the ceramic film on the substrate. The ceramic film has a dielectric constant below 2.3, a halide content of less than 1 ppm and a metal content of less than 500 ppm, making it useful for current and future microelectronics applications.

Mesoporous films having reduced dielectric constants

A process for forming a extremely low dielectric constant film over a substrate. The process includes coating a substrate with a solution comprising a soluble source of silicon oxide, water, a solvent, a surfactant and a catalyst using an ultrasonic spray nozzle. The coated substrate is then subsequently treated to harden the solution into an extremely low dielectric constant film.

Ultrasonic spray coating of liquid precursor for low K dielectric coatings

A process for depositing porous silicon oxide-based films using a sol-gel approach utilizing a precursor solution formulation which includes a purified nonionic surfactant and an additive among other components, where the additive is either an ionic additive or an amine additive which forms an ionic ammonium type salt in the acidic precursor solution. Using this precursor solution formulation enables formation of a film having a dielectric constant less than 2.5, appropriate mechanical properties, and minimal levels of alkali metal impurities. In one embodiment, this is achieved by purifying the surfactant and adding ionic or amine additives such as tetraalkylammonium salts and amines to the stock precursor solution. In some embodiments, the ionic additive is a compound chosen from a group of cationic additives of the general composition &lsqb;NR(CH ) &rsqb; A , where R is a hydrophobic ligand of chain length 1 to 24, including tetramethylammonium and cetyltrimethylammonium, and A is an anion, which may be chosen from the group consisting essentially of formate, nitrate, oxalate, acetate, phosphate, carbonate, and hydroxide and combinations thereof. Tetramethylammonium salts, or more generally tetraalkylammonium salts, or tetraorganoammonium salts or organoamines in acidic media are added to surfactant templated porous oxide precursor formulations to increase the ionic content, replacing alkali ion impurities (sodium and potassium) removed during surfactant purification, but which are found to exhibit beneficial effects in promoting the formation of the resulting dielectric.

A method and an apparatus for depositing a dielectric layer to fill in a gap between adjacent metal lines. In preferred embodiments of the method, a first dielectric layer is deposited over the lines and subsequently etched using both chemical and physical etchback steps. After the etchback steps are completed, a second dielectric layer is deposited over the first dielectric layer to fill in the gap.

Method and apparatus for improving gap-fill capability using chemical and physical etchbacks

Method and apparatus for improving gap-fill capability using chemical

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Michael P Nault