At&t Bell Laboratories

Lucent Technologies Inc.

Bell Telephone Laboratories

American Telephone & Telegraph Co., At&t Bell Laboratories

Robert E Dean

Edwin Arthur Chandross

Gerald Smolinsky

Dan Maydan

Gary N Taylor

Joseph M Moran

Leonard Jay Olmer

Roland A Levy

Pang-Dow Foo

Earl Ryan Lory

Patrick K Gallagher

James L Fink

Edward A Dein

Frank Schrey

The use of a deposition process involving a plasma struck in a gas including tetraethoxysilane and a source of oxygen yields, at low temperatures, conformal coatings of silicon dioxide. This process has significant implications for semiconductor device fabrication involving the deposition of a dielectric over a metallic non-planar structure.

Low temperature deposition of silicon oxides for device fabrication

Conformal layers of a silicon oxide, such as silicon dioxide, are deposited at temperatures below 600 degrees C. through the decomposition of compounds such as diacetoxyditertiarybutoxysilane. The required temperatures do not significantly affect temperature-sensitive structures. Therefore, it is possible to form silicon oxide regions in the processing of devices having these structures. More generally, lowered-temperature processing can be applied to the deposition of other materials which include silicon oxide. For example, borophosphosilicate glasses can be deposited by chemical vapor deposition processing involving flash-evaporation of a mixture of liquid precursor reagents.

Conformal layers of a silicon oxide, such as silicon dioxide, are deposited at temperatures below 600 degrees C. through the decomposition of compounds such as diacetoxyditertiarybutoxysilane. The required temperatures do not significantly affect temperature-sensitive structures. Therefore, it is possible to form silicon oxide regions in the processing of devices having these structures.

Compact apparatus characterized by cleanliness of operation, high throughput and low cost is designed for automatically loading and unloading wafer-carrying trays that are designed to be mounted in the reaction chamber of a processing system. A key component of the apparatus comprises a unique wafer vacuum chuck.

Wafer handling apparatus and method

At least three spring-mounted members disposed around the periphery of an aperture in a wafer-mounting plate are arranged to engage and securely hold edge portions of a semiconductor wafer to be processed. When the spring-mounted members are actuated toward the front side of the plate, a wafer can be freely moved into or out of the aperture from the back side of the plate by means of a vacuum chuck that contacts only the back side of the wafer. After a wafer to be held is inserted within the aperture, the actuated members are released. The released members move toward the back side of the plate and thereby engage the edges of the inserted wafer and exert radial holding forces thereon. The back side of a wafer so mounted is adapted to be brought into resilient engagement with a pedestal element in a processing chamber, thereby ensuring good thermal and electrical contact between the wafer and the pedestal element.

Wafer holding apparatus and method

X-ray lithographic systems as heretofore constructed include a low-attenuation chamber for propagating x-rays from a source toward a mask member that is positioned in close proximity to a resist-coated wafer. Both the mask and the wafer are included in the chamber which typically is either filled with helium or evacuated to a pressure less than about 10.sup.-2 Torr. In accordance with this invention, an x-ray lithographic system is constructed to enable establishment in the wafer-to-mask region of a controlled atmosphere that is separate and distinct from that maintained in the low-attenuation chamber. In this way, an improved lithographic system with advantageous throughput and other characteristics is realized.

Growing community of inventors

High Bridge, NJ, United States of America

Robert E Dean