Applied Materials, Inc.

Ping Han Hsieh

Teng-fang Kuo

Christopher Sean Olsen

Peter Stone

Manoj Vellaikal

Leonard Michael Tedeschi

Benjamin Schwarz

Changhun Lee

Daniel Thomas McCormick

Adauto Diaz, Jr

Avgerinos V Gelatos

Chun Yan

Jim Zhongyi He

Zhenwen Ding

Teng-Fang Kuo

Melitta Manyin Hon

Shi Wei Toh

Xuefeng Hua

Implementations of the present disclosure generally relate to methods and apparatuses for epitaxial deposition on substrate surfaces. More particularly, implementations of the present disclosure generally relate to methods and apparatuses for surface preparation prior to epitaxial deposition. In one implementation, a method of processing a substrate is provided. The method comprises etching a surface of a silicon-containing substrate by use of a plasma etch process, where at least one etching process gas comprising chlorine gas and an inert gas is used during the plasma etch process and forming an epitaxial layer on the surface of the silicon-containing substrate.

Cleaning method

Embodiments may also include a residual chemical reaction diagnostic device. The residual chemical reaction diagnostic device may include a substrate and a residual chemical reaction sensor formed on the substrate. In an embodiment, the residual chemical reaction sensor provides electrical outputs in response to the presence of residual chemical reactions. In an embodiment, the substrate is a device substrate, and the sensor is formed in a scribe line of the device substrate. In an alternative embodiment, the substrate is a process development substrate. In some embodiments, the residual chemical reaction sensor includes, a first probe pad, wherein a plurality of first arms extend out from the first probe pad, and a second probe pad, wherein a plurality of second arms extend out from the second probe pad and are interdigitated with the first arms.

Wafer based corrosion and time dependent chemical effects

Implementations of the present disclosure generally relate to methods and apparatuses for epitaxial deposition on substrate surfaces. More particularly, implementations of the present disclosure generally relate to methods and apparatuses for surface preparation prior to epitaxial deposition. In one implementation, a method of processing a substrate is provided. The method comprises etching a surface of a silicon-containing substrate by use of a plasma etch process to form an etched surface of the silicon-containing substrate and forming an epitaxial layer on the etched surface of the silicon-containing substrate. The plasma etch process comprises flowing an etchant gas mixture comprising a fluorine-containing precursor and a hydrogen-containing precursor into a substrate-processing region of a first processing chamber and forming a plasma from the etchant gas mixture flowed into the substrate-processing region.

The present disclosure generally relates to methods of removing oxides and oxide-containing layers from the surfaces of substrates. In one aspect, a method of processing a substrate comprises positioning a substrate in a process chamber, the substrate having an oxide layer thereon; introducing one or more process gases to an interior of the process chamber; ionizing the one or more process gases; exposing the oxide layer to the one or more ionized process gases, wherein the process chamber is maintained at a pressure less than about 50 mTorr during the exposing, and the substrate is maintained at a temperature within a range of about zero degrees Celsius to about 30 degrees Celsius during the exposing; and removing the oxide layer from the surface of the substrate.

Device conformity control by low temperature, low pressure, inductively coupled ammonia-nitrogen trifluoride plasma

Methods for surface interface engineering in semiconductor fabrication are provided herein. In some embodiments, a method of processing a substrate disposed atop a substrate support in a processing volume of a processing chamber includes: generating an ion species from an inductively coupled plasma formed within the processing volume of the processing chamber from a first process gas; exposing a first layer of the substrate to the ion species to form an ammonium fluoride (NHF) film atop the first layer, wherein the first layer comprises silicon oxide; and heating the substrate to a second temperature at which the ammonium fluoride film reacts with the first layer to selectively etch the silicon oxide.

Methods of surface interface engineering

A method and apparatus for conditioning an oxide surface during a semiconductor device formation process is provided herein. One or more plasma processing operations are performed on a substrate having a fin structure and shallow trench isolation structure (STI) formed thereon. An oxygen containing plasma process may modify surfaces of the STI structure in preparation for an argon containing plasma process. The argon containing plasma process may form a first layer on the fin structure and STI structure and an ammonia fluoride containing plasma process may form a second layer on the first layer. The first and second layers may be removed from the substrate during a subsequent heating process to provide a cleaned fin structure suitable for subsequent processing operations.

CVD oxide surface pre-conditioning by inductively coupled O2 plasma

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Ping Han Hsieh