Applied Materials, Inc.

Praket Prakash Jha

Jingmei Liang

Bok Hoen Kim

Deenesh Padhi

Xinhai Han

Michael Wenyoung Tsiang

Jinrui Guo

Jung Chan Lee

Sanjeev Baluja

Ziqing Duan

Mayur G Kulkarni

Abhijit Basu Mallick

Ganesh Balasubramanian

Martin Jay Seamons

Mandar Balasaheb Pandit

Milind Gadre

Yong Sun

Ryeun Kwan Kim

Sang Hyuk Kim

Kwangduk Douglas Lee

Tza-Jing Gung

Prashant Kumar Kulshreshtha

Sudha S Rathi

Kalyanjit Ghosh

Krishna Nittala

Lei Jing

Saptarshi Basu

Wenhui Li

Allen Ko

Rui Cheng

Mukund Srinivasan

Thomas Jongwan Kwon

Hyung Jin Park

Man-Ping Cai

Jingmin Leng

Jason K Foster

Shuchi Sunil Ojha

Majid K Shahreza

Byung Ho Kil

Lei Guo

Myung Hun Ju

Jin Chul Son

Saiprasanna Gnanavelu

Juan Carlos Rocha-Alvarez

Mark Joseph Saly

Shankar Venkataraman

Shashank Sharma

Li Zhang

Abhilash J Mayur

Amit Kumar Bansal

Karthik Janakiraman

Wolfgang R Aderhold

Timothy J Miller

Ren-Guan Duan

Ajit Balakrishna

Lakmal Charidu Kalutarage

Nagarajan Rajagopalan

Zhijun Jiang

DongQing Li

Sanjay G Kamath

Shishi Jiang

Kyu-Ha Shim

Masaki Ogata

Kaushik Comandoor Alayavalli

Jun Seok Lee

Shaunak Mukherjee

Ndanka O Mukuti

Deven Matthew Raj Mittal

Thuy Britcher

Wei Min Chan

Sungho Jo

Tsutomu Kiyohara

Mun Kyu Park

Euhngi Lee

Subbalakshmi Sreekala

Mandar B Pandit

Gregory Siu

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 post-treating a silicon nitride (SiN)-based dielectric film formed on a surface of a substrate includes positioning a substrate having a silicon nitride (SiN)-based dielectric film formed thereon in a processing chamber, and exposing the silicon nitride (SiN)-based dielectric film to helium-containing high-energy low-dose plasma in the processing chamber. Energy of helium ions in the helium-containing high-energy low-dose plasma is between 1 eV and 3.01 eV, and flux density of the helium ions in the helium-containing high-energy low-dose plasma is between 5×10ions/cm·sec and 1.37×10ions/cm·sec.

Methods of post treating silicon nitride based dielectric films with high energy low dose plasma

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to methods for gap fill deposition and film densification on microelectronic devices. The method includes forming an oxide layer containing silicon oxide and having an initial wet etch rate (WER) over features disposed on the substrate, and exposing the oxide layer to a first plasma treatment to produce a treated oxide layer. The first plasma treatment includes generating a first plasma by a first RF source and directing the first plasma to the oxide layer by a DC bias. The method also includes exposing the treated oxide layer to a second plasma treatment to produce a densified oxide layer. The second plasma treatment includes generating a second plasma by top and side RF sources and directing the second plasma to the treated oxide layer without a bias. The densified oxide layer has a final WER of less than one-half of the initial WER.

Plasma treatment process to densify oxide layers

Exemplary methods of forming a semiconductor structure may include forming a first silicon oxide layer overlying a semiconductor substrate. The methods may include forming a first silicon layer overlying the first silicon oxide layer. The methods may include forming a silicon nitride layer overlying the first silicon layer. The methods may include forming a second silicon layer overlying the silicon nitride layer. The methods may include forming a second silicon oxide layer overlying the second silicon layer. The methods may include removing the silicon nitride layer. The methods may include removing the first silicon layer and the second silicon layer. The methods may include forming a metal layer between and contacting each of the first silicon oxide layer and the second silicon oxide layer.

3D NAND gate stack reinforcement

A method of depositing a silicon-containing material is disclosed. Some embodiments of the disclosure provide films which fill narrow CD features without a seam or void. Some embodiments of the disclosure provide films which form conformally on features with wider CD. Embodiments of the disclosure also provide superior quality films with low roughness, low defects and advantageously low deposition rates.

CD dependent gap fill and conformal films

Exemplary processing methods may include forming a plasma of a silicon-containing precursor. The methods may include depositing a flowable film on a semiconductor substrate with plasma effluents of the silicon-containing precursor. The semiconductor substrate may define a feature within the semiconductor substrate. The methods may include forming a plasma of a hydrogen-containing precursor within the processing region of the semiconductor processing chamber. A bias power may be applied to the substrate support from a bias power source. The methods may include etching the flowable film from a sidewall of the feature within the semiconductor substrate with plasma effluents of the hydrogen-containing precursor. The methods may include densifying remaining flowable film within the feature defined within the semiconductor substrate with plasma effluents of the hydrogen-containing precursor.

Flowable film formation and treatments

Implementations disclosed herein generally provide a lift pin that can improve the deposition rate and uniform film thickness above lift pin areas. In one implementation, the lift pin includes a first end coupling to a shaft, the first end having a pin head, and the pin head having a top surface, wherein the top surface is planar and flat, and a second end coupling to the shaft, the second end having a flared portion, wherein the flared portion has an outer surface extended along a direction that is at an angle of about 110&#xb0; to about 140&#xb0; with respect to a longitudinal axis of the lift pin.

Enhanced lift pin design to eliminate local thickness non-uniformity in teos oxide films

A method of post-treating a dielectric film formed on a surface of a substrate includes positioning a substrate having a dielectric film formed thereon in a processing chamber and exposing the dielectric film to microwave radiation in the processing chamber at a frequency between 5 GHz and 7 GHz.

Methods of post treating dielectric films with microwave radiation

The present disclosure generally relate to thin films incorporating high aspect ratio feature definitions and methods for forming the same. As gate height increases, 3D NAND gate stacks are subject to higher aspect ratio etching. Due to the current limitations of etching techniques, the vertical etch profile typically tapers as the depth into the gate stack increases. The inventors have devised a unique deposition scheme that compensates for etch performance degradation in deep trenches by a novel plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) film deposition method. The inventors have found that by grading various properties (e.g., refractive index, stress of the film, dopant concentration in the film) of the as-deposited films (e.g., silicon nitride) a more uniform etch profile can be achieved by compensating for variations in both dry and wet etch rates.

Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition of films for improved vertical etch performance in 3D NAND memory devices

Methods for forming a smooth ultra-thin flowable CVD film by using a surface treatment on a substrate surface before flowable CVD film deposition improves the uniformity and overall film smoothness. The flowable CVD film can be cured by any suitable curing process to form a smooth flowable CVD film.

Surface roughness for flowable CVD film

Aspects of the disclosure provide a method including depositing an underlayer comprising silicon oxide over a substrate, depositing a polysilicon liner on the underlayer, and depositing an amorphous silicon layer on the polysilicon liner. Aspects of the disclosure provide a device intermediate including a substrate, an underlayer comprising silicon oxide formed over the substrate, a polysilicon liner disposed on the underlayer, and an amorphous silicon layer disposed on the polysilicon liner.

Polysilicon liners

Embodiments disclosed herein relate to cluster tools for forming and filling trenches in a substrate with a flowable dielectric material. In one or more embodiments, a cluster tool for processing a substrate contains a load lock chamber, a first vacuum transfer chamber coupled to the load lock chamber, a second vacuum transfer chamber, a cooling station disposed between the first vacuum transfer chamber and the second vacuum transfer chamber, a factory interface coupled to the load lock chamber, a plurality of first processing chambers coupled to the first vacuum transfer chamber, wherein each of the first processing chambers is a deposition chamber capable of performing a flowable layer deposition, and a plurality of second processing chambers coupled to the second vacuum transfer chamber, wherein each of the second processing chambers is a plasma chamber capable of performing a plasma curing process.

Cyclic flowable deposition and high-density plasma treatment processes for high quality gap fill solutions

Embodiments described and discussed herein provide methods for depositing silicon nitride materials by vapor deposition, such as by flowable chemical vapor deposition (FCVD), as well as for utilizing new silicon-nitrogen precursors for such deposition processes. The silicon nitride materials are deposited on substrates for gap fill applications, such as filling trenches formed in the substrate surfaces. In one or more embodiments, the method for depositing a silicon nitride film includes introducing one or more silicon-nitrogen precursors and one or more plasma-activated co-reactants into a processing chamber, producing a plasma within the processing chamber, and reacting the silicon-nitrogen precursor and the plasma-activated co-reactant in the plasma to produce a flowable silicon nitride material on a substrate within the processing chamber. The method also includes treating the flowable silicon nitride material to produce a solid silicon nitride material on the substrate.

Methods for depositing silicon nitride

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Praket Prakash Jha