Applied Materials, Inc.

Michael Wenyoung Tsiang

Bok Hoen Kim

Xinhai Han

Nagarajan Rajagopalan

Juan Carlos Rocha-Alvarez

Ganesh Balasubramanian

Amit Kumar Bansal

Todd J Egan

Jianhua Zhou

Thomas E Nowak

Jian J Chen

Ramprakash Sankarakrishnan

Mohamad A Ayoub

Edward W Budiarto

Terrance Y Lee

Zhijun Jiang

Jeongmin Lee

Patrick Reilly

Masaki Ogata

Heung Lak Park

Shahid Shaikh

Sergey Starik

Dmitriy Panasyuk

Praket Prakash Jha

Deenesh Padhi

Li-Qun Xia

Sanjeev Baluja

Kwangduk Douglas Lee

Hang Yu

Mayur G Kulkarni

Hyung Jin Park

Yoichi Suzuki

Sang Hyuk Kim

Man-Ping Cai

Ryeun Kwan Kim

Jason K Foster

Jingmin Leng

Majid K Shahreza

Takashi Morii

Myung Hun Ju

Jin Chul Son

Saiprasanna Gnanavelu

Yuta Goto

Kevin Hsiao

Tza-Jing Gung

Abdul Aziz Khaja

Jingmei Liang

Martin Jay Seamons

Mandar Balasaheb Pandit

Yijun Liu

Liangfa Hu

Wenhui Li

Tsutomu Kiyohara

Subbalakshmi Sreekala

Yayun Cheng

Yichuen Lin

Mandar B Pandit

Embodiments of the present technology may include semiconductor processing methods that include depositing a film of semiconductor material on a substrate in a substrate processing chamber. The deposited film may be sampled for defects at greater than or about two non-contiguous regions of the substrate with scanning electron microscopy. The defects that are detected and characterized may include those of a size less than or about 10 nm. The methods may further include calculating a total number of defects in the deposited film based on the sampling for defects in the greater than or about two non-contiguous regions of the substrate. At least one deposition parameter may be adjusted as a result of the calculation. The adjustment to the at least one deposition parameter may reduce the total number of defects in a deposition of the film of semiconductor material.

Systems and methods for analyzing defects in CVD films

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

Exemplary semiconductor processing methods may include flowing deposition gases that may include a nitrogen-containing precursor, a silicon-containing precursor, and a carrier gas, into a substrate processing region of a substrate processing chamber. The flow rate ratio of the nitrogen-containing precursor to the silicon-containing precursor may be greater than or about 1:1. The methods may further include generating a deposition plasma from the deposition gases to form a silicon-and-nitrogen containing layer on a substrate in the substrate processing chamber. The silicon-and-nitrogen-containing layer may be treated with a treatment plasma, where the treatment plasma is formed from the carrier gas without the silicon-containing precursor. The flow rate of the carrier gas in the treatment plasma may be greater than a flow rate of the carrier gas in the deposition plasma.

Tensile nitride deposition systems and methods

Exemplary processing methods may include forming a plasma of a deposition precursor in a processing region of a semiconductor processing chamber. The methods may include adjusting a variable capacitor within 20% of a resonance peak. The variable capacitor may be coupled with an electrode incorporated within a substrate support on which a substrate is seated. The methods may include depositing a material on the substrate.

Hardmask tuning by electrode adjustment

Embodiments described herein generally related to methods for forming a flowable low-k dielectric layer over a trench formed on a surface of a patterned substrate. The methods include delivering a silicon and carbon containing precursor into a substrate processing region of a substrate processing chamber for a first period of time and a second period of time, flowing an oxygen-containing precursor into a remote plasma region of a plasma source while igniting a remote plasma to form a radical-oxygen precursor, flowing the radical-oxygen precursor into the substrate processing region at a second flow rate after the first period of time has elapsed and during the second period of time, and exposing the silicon and carbon containing dielectric precursor to electromagnetic radiation for a third period of time after the second period of time has elapsed.

Oxidation reduction for SiOC film

Implementations of the present disclosure provide methods for processing substrates in a processing chamber. In one implementation, the method includes (a) depositing a dielectric layer on a first substrate at a first chamber pressure using a first high-frequency RF power, (b) depositing sequentially a dielectric layer on N substrates subsequent to the first substrate at a second chamber pressure, wherein N is an integral number of 5 to 10, and wherein depositing each substrate of N substrates comprises using a second high-frequency RF power that has a power density of about 0.21 W/cmto about 0.35 W/cmlower than that of the first high-frequency RF power, (c) performing a chamber cleaning process without the presence of a substrate, and (d) repeating (a) to (c).

Method to enable high temperature processing without chamber drifting

Embodiments described herein relate to methods of forming silicon nitride films. In one embodiment, a first process gas set including a silicon-containing gas and a first nitrogen-containing gas is flowed into the process chamber. An initiation layer is deposited by applying a first radio frequency power to the first process gas set at a first frequency and a first power level. The first flow of the first nitrogen-containing gas of the first process gas set is discontinued and a second process gas set including the silicon-containing gas, a second nitrogen-containing gas, and a hydrogen-containing gas is flowed into the process chamber. A bulk silicon nitride layer is deposited on the initiation layer by applying a second RF power to the second process gas set at a second frequency higher than the first frequency and a second power level higher than the first power level.

Dry etch rate reduction of silicon nitride films

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to an improved method for forming a dielectric film stack used for inter-level dielectric (ILD) layers in a 3D NAND structure. In one embodiment, the method comprises providing a substrate having a gate stack deposited thereon, forming on exposed surfaces of the gate stack a first oxide layer using a first RF power and a first process gas comprising a TEOS gas and a first oxygen-containing gas, and forming over the first oxide layer a second oxide layer using a second RF power and a second process gas comprising a silane gas and a second oxygen-containing gas.

VNAND tensile thick TEOS oxide

The present disclosure generally relates to a method for performing semiconductor device fabrication, and more particularly, to improvements in lithographic overlay techniques. The method for improved overlay includes depositing a material on a substrate, heating a substrate in a chamber using thermal energy, measuring a local stress pattern of each substrate, wherein measuring the local stress pattern measures an amount of change in a depth of the deposited material on the substrate, plotting a plurality of points on a k map to determine a local stress pattern of the substrate, adjusting the thermal energy applied to the points on the k map, determining a sensitivity value for each of the points on the k map, and applying a correction factor to the applied thermal energy to adjust the local stress pattern.

Method for PECVD overlay improvement

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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Fremont, CA, United States of America

Michael Wenyoung Tsiang