Novellus Systems Incorporated

Gasonics International Corporation

Robert A Shepherd, Jr

George D Papasouliotis

David L Chen

Vishal Gauri

Charles A Boitnott

James Caughran

An apparatus for managing plasma in wafer processing operations is disclosed which includes a housing having an internal region defined by an inner wall. The housing has an input port for supplying a plasma into the housing at a first end and an output port at a second end. The apparatus includes a hollow tube contained in the internal region within the housing. The hollow tube is defined by a wall that extends between the first end and the second end and contains a plurality of orifices generating a plurality of fluid paths through the wall. A fluid input is included supplying fluid into the internal region of the housing. The supplied fluid is capable of passing through the plurality of orifices, and the plasma supplied through the input port is capable of being mixed within the hollow tube with the supplied fluid. The output port at the second end of the housing enables the mixed plasma and fluid supply to exit the housing.

Method and apparatus for plasma optimization in water processing

High density plasma chemical vapor deposition and etch back processes that can fill high aspect ratio (typically at least 5:1, for example 6:1), narrow width (typically sub 0.13 micron, for example 0.1 micron or less) gaps with significantly reduced incidence of voids or weak spots are provided. This deposition part of the process may involve the use of any suitable high density plasma chemical vapor deposition (HDP CVD) chemistry. The etch back part of the process involves an integrated multi-step (for example, two-step) procedure including an anisotropic dry etch followed by an isotropic dry etch. The all dry deposition and etch back process in a single tool increases throughput and reduces handling of wafers resulting in more efficient and higher quality gap fill operations.

Multi-step deposition and etch back gap fill process

A modular semiconductor wafer processing system comprises a chamber with a wafer support and gas manifold structure that supplies reactive gases through a showerhead delivery system to one side of a wafer-being-processed and that exhausts both the reactive gases and a non-reactive gas flow. The other side of the wafer is protected from the reactive gases by evenly delivering the non-reactive gases from a platen close to the wafer. The gap between the wafer and platen, and the choice of non-reactive gas and its flow rate are adjusted to optimize the protection afforded to the wafer's one side while still allowing, for example, the stripping of a silicon nitride film from the wafer's other side.

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Castro Valley, CA, United States of America

Robert A Shepherd, Jr