Lam Research Corporation

Purushottam Kumar

Adrien Lavoie

Jun Qian

Hu Kang

Pulkit Agarwal

Joseph Abel

Ishtak Karim

Frank Loren Pasquale

Shankar Swaminathan

Bart Jan Van Schravendijk

Chloe Baldasseroni

Seiji Matsuyama

David Charles Smith

Tuan Anh Nguyen

Karl Frederick Leeser

Ravi Kumar

Douglas Walter Agnew

Richard Phillips

Sung Je Kim

Jeremiah Baldwin

Fung Suong Ou

Ramesh Chandrasekharan

Awnish Gupta

Ian John Curtin

You Zhai

Tengfei Miao

Ye Wang

Gengwei Jiang

Yi Chung Chiu

Wei-Chih Lai

Seshasayee Varadarajan

Mohamed Sabri

Patrick G Breiling

Adrien LaVoie

Jennifer Leigh Petraglia

Paul Franzen

Arpan Pravin Mahorowala

Andrew Duvall

Jason Daejin Park

Jeremy David Fields

Gautam Dhar

Jeongseok Ha

Eashwar Ranganathan

Eli Jeon

Hsiang-yun Lee

Heather Landis

Ingi Bae

Trung T Le

Jeffrey Kersten

Siddappa Attur

Kiyong Cho

Jaswinder Guliani

Puikit Agarwal

Daniel Ho

Methods and apparatuses for controlling precursor flow in a semiconductor processing tool are disclosed. A method may include flowing gas through a gas line, opening an ampoule valve(s), before a dose step, to start a flow of precursor from the ampoule to a process chamber through the gas line, closing the ampoule valve(s) to stop the precursor from flowing out of the ampoule, opening a process chamber valve, at the beginning of the dose step, to allow the flow of precursor to enter the process chamber, and closing the process chamber valve, at the end of the dose step, to stop the flow of precursor from entering the process chamber. A controller may include at least one memory and at least one processor and the at least one memory may store instructions for controlling the at least one processor to control precursor flow in a semiconductor processing tool.

Dynamic precursor dosing for atomic layer deposition

Methods of providing control of film properties during atomic layer deposition using intermittent plasma treatment in-situ are provided herein. Methods include modulating gas flow rate ratios used to generate plasma during intermittent plasma treatment, toggling plasma power, and modulating chamber pressure.

In-situ control of film properties during atomic layer deposition

Methods for depositing films by atomic layer deposition using aminosilanes are provided.

Ultrathin atomic layer deposition film accuracy thickness control

Methods and system are provided for dynamic process control in substrate processing, for example in semiconductor manufacturing applications. Some example systems and methods are provided for advanced monitoring and machine learning in atomic layer deposition (ALD) processes. Some examples also relate to dynamic process control and monitoring for chamber parameter matching and gas line charge times.

Dynamic process control in semiconductor manufacturing

Methods and apparatuses for modifying a wafer surface using an organosilicon precursor are provided herein. The wafer surface is dosed with the organosilicon precursor following deposition of a dielectric material by an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process. In some implementations, the dielectric layer is made of silicon oxide. Dosing the wafer surface with the organosilicon precursor may occur in the same chamber as the ALD process. The organosilicon precursor may modify the wafer surface to increase its hydrophobicity so that photoresist adhesion is improved on the wafer surface. In some implementations, the wafer surface may be exposed to an inert gas RF plasma after dosing the wafer surface with the organosilicon precursor.

Modifying hydrophobicity of a wafer surface using an organosilicon precursor

A method for doping a substrate is provided. A silicon oxide diffusion barrier layer is formed on a surface of the substrate. At least one dopant layer is deposited over the silicon oxide diffusion barrier layer. A cap layer is deposited over the at least one dopant layer forming a stack of the substrate, the silicon oxide diffusion layer, the at least one dopant layer, and the cap layer. The stack is annealed. The cap layer, at least one dopant layer, and the silicon oxide diffusion barrier layer are removed.

Method for providing doped silicon using a diffusion barrier layer

Methods and apparatuses for depositing approximately equal thicknesses of a material on at least two substrates concurrently processed in separate stations of a multi-station deposition apparatus are provided.

Variable cycle and time RF activation method for film thickness matching in a multi-station deposition system

Systems and methods for cleaning a processing chamber include supplying a pre-activated cleaning gas through a collar surrounding a showerhead stem into the processing chamber to clean the processing chamber. In other embodiments, a cleaning gas is supplied to the collar, and RF power is supplied to the showerhead or to a pedestal to generate plasma in the processing chamber to clean the processing chamber. In still other embodiments, an inert gas is supplied to the collar, a pre-activated cleaning gas is supplied to the showerhead stem, and RF power is supplied to the showerhead or to the pedestal to generate plasma in the processing chamber to clean the processing chamber.

Apparatus for cleaning plasma chambers

A plasma generating system generates plasma in a processing chamber. A controller is configured to: a) perform atomic layer deposition (ALD) N times to deposit film in a feature of the substrate; b) after performing a) M of the N times, supply an inhibitor plasma gas to the processing chamber and strike plasma in the processing chamber to create a passivated surface more on upper portions of the feature as compared to lower portions of the feature to inhibit the atomic layer deposition in the upper portions of the feature as compared to the lower portions of the feature; c) supply an etch gas to the processing chamber to etch the film more in the upper portions of the feature than in the lower portions in the feature of the substrate following b); and d) repeat a) to c) one or more times to gapfill the feature without voids.

Dielectric gapfill using atomic layer deposition (ALD), inhibitor plasma and etching

Various embodiments include methods to produce low dielectric-constant (low-k) films. In one embodiment, alternating ALD cycles and dopant materials are used to generate a new family of silicon low-k materials. Specifically, these materials were developed to fill high-aspect-ratio structures with re-entrant features. However, such films are also useful in blanket applications where conformal nanolaminates are applicable. Various embodiments also disclose SiOF as well as SiOCF, SiONF, GeOCF, and GeOF. Analogous films may include halide derivatives with iodine and bromine (e.g., replace 'F' with “I” or “Br”). Other methods, chemistries, and techniques are disclosed.

Low-κ ALD gap-fill methods and material

A method for processing a substrate is provided, wherein the substrate is located below a showerhead in a processing chamber. A deposition layer is deposited on the substrate, wherein at least one deposition gas is provided through the showerhead. A secondary purge gas is flowed during the depositing the deposition layer from a location outside of the showerhead in the processing chamber forming a flow curtain around an outer edge of the showerhead, wherein the secondary purge gas comprises at least one component gas. A partial pressure of the at least one component gas is changed over time during the depositing the deposition layer, wherein the depositing the deposition layer has a non-uniformity, wherein the changing the partial pressure changes the non-uniformity over time during the depositing the deposition layer.

Method and apparatus for modulating film uniformity

Methods for depositing ultrathin films by atomic layer deposition with reduced wafer-to-wafer variation are provided. Methods involve exposing the substrate to soak gases including one or more gases used during a plasma exposure operation of an atomic layer deposition cycle prior to the first atomic layer deposition cycle to heat the substrate to the deposition temperature.

Method of atomic layer deposition

A method for forming features over a wafer with a carbon based deposition is provided. The carbon based deposition is pretuned, wherein the pretuning causes a non-uniform removal of some of the carbon based deposition. An oxide deposition is deposited through an atomic layer deposition process, wherein the depositing the oxide deposition causes a non-uniform removal of some of the carbon based deposition. At least one additional process is provided, wherein the at least one additional process completes formation of features over the wafer, wherein the features are more uniform than features that would be formed without pretuning.

Method of improving deposition induced CD imbalance using spatially selective ashing of carbon based film

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Hillsboro, OR, United States of America

Purushottam Kumar