Applied Materials, Inc.

Megachips Corporation

Shankarram Athreya

Craig Metzner

Shreyas Kher

Shixue Han

Vidyut Gopal

Pravin K Narwankar

Kenny King-Tai Ngan

Ravi Rajagopalan

Randall Scott Urdahl

Dinesh Saigal

Lisa L Yang

Mouloud Bakli

Anand Gopalan

Asher Sinensky

Takahiro Itagaki

Sarath Chandrasekhar Venkatesh Kumar

A system for cancelling offset includes a gain circuit. The gain circuit may include a transistor circuit connected to a pair of input nodes and configured to convert an input signal to an output signal so that the output signal has a gain compared with the input signal. The gain circuit also may include a pair of output nodes configured to receive the output signal from the transistor circuit. The gain circuit is configured to cause a voltage change at one of the output nodes relative to another output node, in response to the gain circuit receiving a feedback offset correction signal. This effectively cancels at least a portion of an offset in the output signal.

Offset cancellation with minimum noise impact and gain-bandwidth degradation

Methods of forming metal compounds such as metal oxides or metal nitrides by sequentially introducing and then reacting metal organic compounds with ozone one or with oxygen radicals or nitrogen radicals formed in a remote plasma chamber. The metal compounds have surprisingly and significantly improved uniformity when deposited by atomic layer deposition with cycle times of at least 10 seconds. The metal compounds also do not contain detectable carbon when the metal organic compound is vaporized at process conditions in the absence of solvents or excess ligands.

ALD metal oxide deposition process using direct oxidation

Embodiments of the invention provide methods for forming hafnium materials, such as oxides and nitrides, by sequentially exposing a substrate to hafnium precursors and active oxygen or nitrogen species (e.g., ozone, oxygen radicals, or nitrogen radicals). The deposited hafnium materials have significantly improved uniformity when deposited by these atomic layer deposition (ALD) processes. In one embodiment, an ALD chamber contains an expanding channel having a bottom surface that is sized and shaped to substantially cover a substrate positioned on a substrate pedestal. During an ALD process for forming hafnium materials, process gases form a vortex flow pattern while passing through the expanding channel and sweep across the substrate surface. The substrate is sequentially exposed to chemical precursors that are pulsed into the process chamber having the vortex flow.

Methods of forming metal compounds such as metal oxides or metal nitrides by sequentially introducing and then reacting metal organic compounds with ozone or with oxygen radicals or nitrogen radicals formed in a remote plasma chamber. The metal compounds have surprisingly and significantly improved uniformity when deposited by atomic layer deposition with cycle times of at least 10 seconds. The metal compounds also do not contain detectable carbon when the metal organic compound is vaporized at process conditions in the absence of solvents or excess ligands.

The formation of a barrier layer over a high k dielectric layer and deposition of a conducting layer over the barrier layer prevents intermigration between the species of the high k dielectric layer and the conducting layer and prevents oxygen scavenging of the high k dielectric layer. One example of a capacitor stack device provided includes a high k dielectric layer of Ta O , a barrier layer of TaON or TiON formed at least in part by a remote plasma process, and a top electrode of TiN. The processes may be conducted at about 300 to 700&deg; C. and are thus useful for low thermal budget applications. Also provided are MIM capacitor constructions and methods in which an insulator layer is formed by remote plasma oxidation of a bottom electrode.

Processes for making a barrier between a dielectric and a conductor and products produced therefrom

A method of forming solder bumps on a semiconductor wafer utilizing a low temperature biasable electrostatic chuck. In particular, the method comprises the steps of providing at least one bond pad on the semiconductor wafer, forming a barrier layer over the bond pad, and forming the solder bumps upon the at least one bond pad. By controlling the temperature and biasing of the electrostatic chuck, the barrier layer, such as nickel vanadium, exhibits a low tensile or compressive stress.

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Shankarram Athreya