Novellus Systems Incorporated

Timothy Mark Archer

Steven T Mayer

John Stephen Drewery

Richard S Hill

Avishai Kepten

Jonathan David Reid

Eric G Webb

Yuichi Takada

Dennis Michael Hausmann

Sasson Roger Somekh

Wai-Fan Yau

Jon Henri

George D Papasouliotis

Seshasayee Varadarajan

Bunsen B Nie

Adrianne K Tipton

Brian Lu

Raihan M Tarafdar

Jeff Tobin

Marshall Stowell

Jon Reid

Gerald B Feldewerth

Ron Rulkins

Thomas Tan Vu

David Sauer

Anita Kang

Methods and apparatus are provided for planar metal plating on a workpiece having a surface with recessed regions and exposed surface regions; comprising the steps of: causing a plating accelerator to become attached to said surface including the recessed and exposed surface regions; selectively removing the plating accelerator from the exposed surface regions without performing substantial metal plating on the surface; and after removal of plating accelerator is at least partially complete, plating metal onto the surface, whereby the plating accelerator remaining attached to the surface increases the rate of metal plating in the recessed regions relative to the rate of metal plating in the exposed surface regions.

Selective electrochemical accelerator removal

The present invention provides improved methods and devices for electroplating copper on a wafer. Some implementations of the present invention involve the pre-treatment of the wafer with a solution containing accelerator molecules. Preferably, the bath into which the wafer is subsequently placed for electroplating has a reduced concentration of accelerator molecules. The pre-treatment causes a reduction in roughness of the electroplated copper surface, particularly during the initial phases of copper growth.

Deposit morphology of electroplated copper

Conformal nanolaminate dielectric 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 involve the use of any suitable confirmal dielectric deposition technique and a dry etch back. The etch back part of the process involves a single step or 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 nanolaminate dielectric gap fill operations.

Conformal nanolaminate dielectric deposition and etch bag gap fill process

An electroplating system includes (a) a phosphorized anode having an average grain size of at least about 50 micrometers and (b) plating apparatus that separates the anode from the cathode and prevents most particles generated at the anode from passing to the cathode. The separation may be accomplished by interposing a microporous chemical transport barrier between the anode and cathode. The relatively few particles that are generated at the large grain phosphorized copper anode are prevented from passing into the cathode (wafer) chamber area and thereby causing a defect in the part.

Anode and anode chamber for copper electroplating

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Lake Oswego, OR, United States of America

Timothy Mark Archer