Lam Research Corporation

Novellus Systems Incorporated

Other

Shankar Swaminathan

Adrien Lavoie

Frank Loren Pasquale

Hu Kang

Chloe Baldasseroni

Jun Qian

Ramesh Chandrasekharan

Dennis Michael Hausmann

Jon Henri

Karl Frederick Leeser

Bart Jan Van Schravendijk

Mandyam Sriram

Purushottam Kumar

David Charles Smith

Jennifer Leigh Petraglia

Andrew Duvall

Saangrut Sangplung

Ted Minshall

Pramod Subramonium

Sesha Varadarajan

Edward J Augustyniak

Yukinori Sakiyama

Adrien LaVoie

Ananda K Banerji

Andrew John McKerrow

Vishwanathan Rangarajan

Bart K Van Schravendijk

Ryan Blaquiere

Wanki Kim

Kirthi Kattige

Tuan Anh Nguyen

Bhadri N Varadarajan

Reza Arghavani

Girish Anant Dixit

Douglas L Keil

Samantha SiamHwa Tan

Nagraj Shankar

Ishtak Karim

Mohamed Sabri

Nader Shamma

Richard Phillips

Eashwar Ranganathan

Ming Chu Li

Seshasayee Varadarajan

Easwar Srinivasan

Thomas W Mountsier

Paul Konkola

Patrick G Breiling

Kapu Sirish Reddy

Jennifer O'Loughlin

Edmund Minshall

Meliha Gozde Rainville

Antonio Xavier

Sung Je Kim

Thomas G Jewell

Jeongseok Ha

Cody Barnett

Tom Dorsh

Yi Chung Chiu

Wei-Chih Lai

Bryan Schlief

Michal Danek

Paul Franzen

Arpan Pravin Mahorowala

Jason Daejin Park

Basha Sajjad

Jeremiah Baldwin

Naohiro Shoda

Heather Landis

Ingi Bae

Trung T Le

Provided herein are methods and apparatus for filling one or more gaps on a semiconductor substrate. The disclosed embodiments are especially useful for forming seam-free, void-free fill in both narrow and wide features. The methods may be performed without any intervening etching operations to achieve a single step deposition. In various implementations, a first operation is performed using a novel PEALD fill mechanism to fill narrow gaps and line wide gaps. A second operation may be performed using PECVD methods to continue filling the wide gaps.

Gapfill of variable aspect ratio features with a composite PEALD and PECVD method

Methods and apparatus for use of a fill on demand ampoule are disclosed. The fill on demand ampoule may refill an ampoule with precursor concurrent with the performance of other deposition processes. The fill on demand may keep the level of precursor within the ampoule at a relatively constant level. The level may be calculated to result in an optimum head volume. The fill on demand may also keep the precursor at a temperature near that of an optimum precursor temperature. The fill on demand may occur during parts of the deposition process where the agitation of the precursor due to the filling of the ampoule with the precursor minimally effects the substrate deposition. Substrate throughput may be increased through the use of fill on demand.

Fill on demand ampoule refill

A pedestal for a substrate processing system includes a pedestal body including a substrate-facing surface. An annular band is arranged on the substrate-facing surface that is configured to support a radially outer edge of the substrate. A cavity is defined in the substrate-facing surface of the pedestal body and is located radially inside of the annular band. The cavity creates a volume between a bottom surface of the substrate and the substrate-facing surface of the pedestal body. A plurality of vents pass though the pedestal body and are in fluid communication with the cavity to equalize pressure on opposing faces of the substrate during processing.

Planar substrate edge contact with open volume equalization pathways and side containment

A substrate processing system includes: a processing chamber defining a reaction volume; a showerhead including: a stem portion having one end connected adjacent to an upper surface of the processing chamber; and a base portion connected to an opposite end of the stem portion and extending radially outwardly from the stem portion, where the showerhead is configured to introduce gas into the reaction volume; a plasma generator configured to selectively generate RF plasma in the reaction volume; and a collar arranged around the stem portion of the showerhead between the base portion of the showerhead and the upper surface of the processing chamber. The collar includes one or more holes to supply purge gas from an inner cavity of the collar to between the base portion of the showerhead and the upper surface of the processing chamber.

Systems and methods for suppressing parasitic plasma and reducing within-wafer non-uniformity

A substrate is positioned in exposure to a plasma generation region within a plasma processing chamber. A first plasma is generated within the plasma generation region. The first plasma is configured to cause deposition of a film on the substrate until the film deposited on the substrate reaches a threshold film thickness. The substrate is then exposed to ultraviolet radiation to resolve defects within the film deposited on the substrate. The ultraviolet radiation can be supplied in-situ using either a second plasma configured to generate ultraviolet radiation or an ultraviolet irradiation device disposed in exposure to the plasma generation region. The ultraviolet radiation can also be supplied ex-situ by moving the substrate to an ultraviolet irradiation device separate from the plasma processing chamber. The substrate can be exposed to the ultraviolet radiation in a repeated manner to resolve defects within the deposited film as the film thickness increases.

Systems and methods for UV-based suppression of plasma instability

Disclosed herein are methods of doping a fin-shaped channel region of a partially fabricated 3-D transistor on a semiconductor substrate. The methods may include forming a multi-layer dopant-containing film on the substrate, forming a capping film comprising a silicon carbide material, a silicon nitride material, a silicon carbonitride material, or a combination thereof, the capping film located such that the multi-layer dopant-containing film is located in between the substrate and the capping film, and driving dopant from the dopant-containing film into the fin-shaped channel region. Multiple dopant-containing layers of the film may be formed by an atomic layer deposition process which includes adsorbing a dopant-containing film precursor such that it forms an adsorption-limited layer on the substrate and reacting adsorbed dopant-containing film precursor. Also disclosed herein are multi-station substrate processing apparatuses for doping the fin-shaped channel regions of partially fabricated 3-D transistors.

Capped ALD films for doping fin-shaped channel regions of 3-D IC transistors

A processing chamber in a substrate processing system includes an upper surface, sidewalls, and a bottom surface and a showerhead connected to and extending downward from the upper surface of the processing chamber. The showerhead includes a stem portion and a base portion. An inverted conical surface is arranged adjacent to the upper surface and the sidewalls of the processing chamber and includes an angled surface arranged to redirect gas flow above the showerhead from a horizontal direction to a downward direction and into a gap between a radially outer portion of the base portion and the sidewalls of the processing chamber.

Substrate processing chamber including conical surface for reducing recirculation

A low volume showerhead in a semiconductor processing apparatus can include a porous baffle to improve the flow uniformity and purge time during atomic layer deposition. The showerhead can include a plenum volume, one or more gas inlets in fluid communication with the plenum volume, a faceplate including a plurality of first through-holes for distributing gas onto a substrate in the semiconductor processing apparatus, and a porous baffle positioned in a region between the plenum volume and the one or more gas inlets. The one or more gas inlets can include a stem having a small volume to improve purge time. The baffle can be porous and positioned between the stem and the plenum volume to improve flow uniformity and avoid jetting.

Low volume showerhead with porous baffle

Methods and apparatus to form films on sensitive substrates while preventing damage to the sensitive substrate are provided herein. In certain embodiments, methods involve forming a bilayer film on a sensitive substrate that both protects the underlying substrate from damage and possesses desired electrical properties. Also provided are methods and apparatus for evaluating and optimizing the films, including methods to evaluate the amount of substrate damage resulting from a particular deposition process and methods to determine the minimum thickness of a protective layer. The methods and apparatus described herein may be used to deposit films on a variety of sensitive materials such as silicon, cobalt, germanium-antimony-tellerium, silicon-germanium, silicon nitride, silicon carbide, tungsten, titanium, tantalum, chromium, nickel, palladium, ruthenium, or silicon oxide.

Methods for depositing films on sensitive substrates

A substrate processing system for depositing film on a substrate includes a processing chamber defining a reaction volume. A showerhead includes a stem portion having one end connected adjacent to an upper surface of the processing chamber. A base portion is connected to an opposite end of the stem portion and extends radially outwardly from the stem portion. The showerhead is configured to introduce at least one of process gas and purge gas into the reaction volume. A plasma generator is configured to selectively generate RF plasma in the reaction volume. An edge tuning system includes a collar and a parasitic plasma reducing element that is located around the stem portion between the collar and an upper surface of the showerhead. The parasitic plasma reducing element is configured to reduce parasitic plasma between the showerhead and the upper surface of the processing chamber.

A process chamber for depositing a film on a wafer is provided, including: a pedestal having, a central top surface having a plurality of wafer supports configured to support the wafer at a support level above the central top surface, an annular surface at a step down from the central top surface; a carrier ring configured to be supported by carrier ring supports such that a bottom surface of the carrier ring is at a first vertical separation above the annular surface, the carrier ring having a step down surface defined relative to a top surface; wherein when the carrier ring is seated on the carrier ring supports, then the step down surface of the carrier ring is positioned at a process level that is at a second vertical separation from the support level over the top surface of the pedestal.

Reducing backside deposition at wafer edge

Methods and apparatuses for patterning substrates using a positive patterning scheme are described herein. Methods involve receiving a substrate having a patterned core material, depositing a doped spacer material conformally over the patterned core material, selectively etching the core material to the doped spacer material to form a spacer mask, and using the spacer mask to etch a target layer on the substrate. Spacer materials may be doped using any of boron, gallium, phosphorus, arsenic, aluminum, and hafnium. Embodiments are suitable for applications in multiple patterning applications.

Doped ALD films for semiconductor patterning applications

A pedestal for a substrate processing system includes a pedestal body including a substrate-facing surface. An annular band is arranged on the substrate-facing surface that is configured to support a radially outer edge of the substrate. A cavity is defined in the substrate-facing surface of the pedestal body and is located radially inside of the annular band. The cavity creates a volume between a bottom surface of the substrate and the substrate-facing surface of the pedestal body. A plurality of vents pass through the pedestal body and are in fluid communication with the cavity to equalize pressure on opposing faces of the substrate during processing.

Growing community of inventors

Beaverton, OR, United States of America

Shankar Swaminathan