Applied Materials, Inc.

Suhas Bangalore Umesh

Martin Lee Riker

Fuhong Zhang

Kishor Kumar Kalathiparambil

Goichi Yoshidome

Shirish A Pethe

Prashanth Kothnur

Xiaodong Wang

Kevin Kashefi

Wei Lei

Lanlan Zhong

Preetham P Rao

Jiajie Cen

Madan Kumar Shimoga Mylarappa

Andrew Tomko

Sushil Arun Samant

Zheng Ju

Methods of processing a substrate in a PVD chamber are provided herein. In some embodiments, a method of processing a substrate in a PVD chamber, includes: sputtering material from a target disposed in the PVD chamber and onto a substrate, wherein at least some of the material sputtered from the target is guided to the substrate through a magnetic field provided by one or more upper magnets disposed about a processing volume of the PVD chamber above a support pedestal for the substrate in the PVD chamber, one or more first magnets disposed about the support pedestal and providing an increased magnetic field strength at an edge region of the substrate, and one or more second magnets disposed below the support pedestal that increase a magnetic field strength at a central region of the substrate.

Methods for shaping magnetic fields during semiconductor processing

Collimator for a physical vapor deposition chamber

A plasma vapor deposition (PVD) chamber used for depositing material includes an apparatus for influencing ion trajectories during deposition on a substrate. The apparatus includes at least one annular support assembly configured to be externally attached to and positioned below a substrate support pedestal and a magnetic field generator affixed to the annular support assembly and configured to radiate magnetic fields on a top surface of the substrate. The magnetic field generator may include a plurality of symmetrically spaced discrete permanent magnets or may use one or more electromagnets to generate the magnetic fields.

Apparatus for generating magnetic fields on substrates during semiconductor processing

Methods and apparatus for processing a substrate are provided herein. For example, a physical vapor deposition processing chamber comprises a chamber body defining a processing volume, a substrate support disposed within the processing volume and comprising a substrate support surface configured to support a substrate, a power supply configured to energize a target for sputtering material toward the substrate, an electromagnet operably coupled to the chamber body and positioned to form electromagnetic filed lines through a sheath above the substrate during sputtering for directing sputtered material toward the substrate, and a controller operably coupled to the physical vapor deposition processing chamber for controlling the electromagnet based on a recipe comprising a pulsing schedule for pulsing the electromagnet during operation to control directionality of ions relative to a feature on the substrate.

Electromagnet pulsing effect on PVD step coverage

A plasma vapor deposition (PVD) chamber used for depositing material includes an apparatus for influencing ion trajectories during deposition in an edge region of a substrate. The apparatus includes a reflector assembly that surrounds a substrate support and is configured to reflect heat to the substrate during reflowing of material deposited on the substrate and a plurality of permanent magnets embedded in the reflector assembly that are configured to influence ion trajectories on the edge region of the substrate during deposition processes, the plurality of permanent magnets are spaced symmetrically around the reflector assembly.

Apparatus for generating magnetic fields during semiconductor processing

Methods and apparatus for processing a plurality of substrates are provided herein. In some embodiments, a method of processing a plurality of substrates in a physical vapor deposition (PVD) chamber includes: performing a series of reflow processes on a corresponding series of substrates over at least a portion of a life of a sputtering target disposed in the PVD chamber, wherein a substrate-to-target distance in the PVD chamber and a support-to-target distance within the PVD chamber are each controlled as a function of the life of the sputtering target.

Substrate temperature non-uniformity reduction over target life using spacing compensation

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Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Suhas Bangalore Umesh