Applied Materials, Inc.

Lam Research Corporation

Novellus Systems Incorporated

Tsung-Han Yang

Anand Chandrashekar

Christopher Sean Olsen

Lara Hawrylchak

Gang Liu

Jasmine Lin

Michael Bowes

Rongjun Wang

Juwen Gao

Feng Chen

Deqi Wang

Erika Hansen

Naman Apurva

Chaitanya Anjaneyalu Prasad

Daniel C Glover

Michal Danek

Raashina Humayun

Yixiong Yang

Yu Lei

Roey Shaviv

Sahil Patel

Leonard Wai Fung Kho

Yi Xu

Xiangjin Xie

Rene George

Xiaodong Wang

Kevin Kashefi

David Knapp

Wei Lei

Jie Zhang

Xing Zhang

Jiajie Cen

Aixi Zhang

Zhimin Qi

Shiyu Yue

Xingyao Gao

Lei Guo

Ju Hyun Oh

Min-Han Lee

Zhen Liu

Yongqian Gao

John W Griswold

Provided herein are methods and apparatuses for controlling uniformity of processing at an edge region of a semiconductor wafer. In some embodiments, the methods include providing a backside inhibition gas as part of a deposition-inhibition-deposition (DID) sequence.

Backside reactive inhibition gas

Embodiments of the disclosure relate to methods for metal gapfill of a logic device with lower resistivity. Specific embodiments provide integrated separate tungsten PVD processes with plasma-etch to solve the overhang issue caused by tungsten PVD and the high resistivity caused by nucleation.

Low resistivity gapfill for logic devices

A method of pre-cleaning in a semiconductor structure includes performing a plasma pre-treatment process to remove impurities from a surface of a semiconductor structure comprising a metal layer and a dielectric layer, performing a selective etch process to remove molybdenum oxide from a surface of the metal layer, the selective etch process comprising soaking the semiconductor structure in a precursor including molybdenum chloride (MoCl, MoCl) at a temperature of between 250° C. and 350° C., and performing a post-treatment process to remove chlorine residues and by-products of the selective etch process on the surface of the semiconductor structure.

Metal oxide preclean for bottom-up gapfill in MEOL and BEOL

Described herein are methods of filling features with tungsten, and related systems and apparatus, involving inhibition of tungsten nucleation. In some embodiments, the methods involve selective inhibition along a feature profile. Methods of selectively inhibiting tungsten nucleation can include exposing the feature to ammonia vapor in a non-plasma process. Process parameters including exposure time, substrate temperature, and chamber pressure can be used to tune the inhibition profile. Also provided are methods of filling multiple adjacent lines with reduced or no line bending. The methods involve selectively inhibiting the tungsten nucleation to reduce sidewall growth during feature fill.

Tungsten feature fill with nucleation inhibition

Embodiments of methods of performing a selective oxidation process on non-metal surfaces are provided herein. In some embodiments, a method of performing a selective oxidation process on non-metal surfaces includes: forming a first mixture of a carrier gas and a liquid in a mixer having a mixing block coupled to one or more control valves with a mixing line disposed therebetween; flowing the first mixture from the mixer to a vaporizer to vaporize the first mixture outside of an RTP chamber; and delivering the vaporized first mixture to the RTP chamber via a gas delivery line to expose a substrate disposed in the RTP chamber with the vaporized first mixture to perform a selective oxidation process on the substrate at a temperature of about 500 to about 1100 degrees Celsius.

Methods of selective oxidation on rapid thermal processing (RTP) chamber with active steam generation

A method and apparatus for growing an oxide layer within a feature of a substrate is described herein. The method is suitable for use in semiconductor manufacturing. The oxide layer is formed by exposing a substrate to both a high pressure oxidant exposure and a lower pressure oxygen containing plasma exposure. The high pressure oxidant exposure is performed at a pressure of greater than 10 Torr, while the lower pressure oxygen containing plasma exposure is performed at a pressure of less than about 10 Torr. The features are high-aspect ratio trenches or holes within a stack of silicon oxide and silicon nitride layers.

Dual pressure oxidation method for forming an oxide layer in a feature

Methods for selective inhibition control in semiconductor manufacturing are provided. An example method includes providing a substrate including a feature having one or more feature openings and a feature interior. A nucleation layer is formed on a surface of the feature interior. Based on a differential inhibition profile, a nonconformal bulk layer is selectively formed on a surface of the nucleation layer to leave a region of the nucleation layer covered, and a region of the nucleation layer uncovered by the nonconformal bulk layer. An inhibition layer is selectively formed on the covered and uncovered regions of the nucleation layer. Tungsten is deposited in the feature in accordance with the differential inhibition profile.

Tungsten feature fill with inhibition control

Methods of mitigating line bending during feature fill include deposition of an amorphous layer and/or an inhibition treatment during fill.

Reducing line bending during metal fill process

Methods of depositing a tungsten nucleation layers that achieve very good step coverage are provided. The methods involve a sequence of alternating pulses of a tungsten-containing precursor and a boron-containing reducing agent, while co-flowing hydrogen (H2) with the boron-containing reducing agent. The H2 flow is stopped prior to the tungsten-containing precursor flow. By co-flowing H2 with the boron-containing reducing agent but not with the tungsten-containing precursor flow, a parasitic CVD component is reduced, resulting in a more self-limiting process. This in turn improves step coverage and conformality of the nucleation layer. Related apparatuses are also provided.

High step coverage tungsten deposition

Embodiments of gas distribution modules for use with rapid thermal processing (RTP) systems and methods of use thereof are provided herein. In some embodiments, a gas distribution module for use with a RTP chamber includes: a first carrier gas line and a first liquid line fluidly coupled to a mixer, the mixer having one or more control valves configured to mix a carrier gas from the first carrier gas line and a liquid from the first liquid line in a desired ratio to form a first mixture; a vaporizer coupled to the mixer and configured to receive the first mixture in a hollow internal volume, the vaporizer having a heater configured to vaporize the first mixture; and a first gas delivery line disposed between the vaporizer and the RTP chamber to deliver the vaporized first mixture to the RTP chamber.

Selective oxidation on rapid thermal processing (RTP) chamber with active steam generation

Provided herein are methods of depositing low stress and void free metal films in deep features and related apparatus. Embodiments of the methods include treating the sidewalls of the holes to inhibit metal deposition while leaving the feature bottom untreated. In subsequent deposition operations, metal precursor molecules diffuse to the feature bottom for deposition. The process is repeated with subsequent inhibition operations treating the remaining exposed sidewalls. By repeating inhibition and deposition operations, high quality void free fill can be achieved. This allows high temperature, low stress deposition to be performed.

Void free low stress fill

Aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to oscillating a boundary layer of a flow of process gas in methods and systems for processing substrates. In one aspect, one or more of a pressure, a gas flow rate, and/or a height of a substrate are oscillated during processing. In one implementation, a method of processing a substrate includes conducting a processing operation on the substrate in an interior volume of a processing chamber. The conducting the processing operation on the substrate includes moving a flow of one or more process gases over a surface of the substrate. The method also includes oscillating a boundary layer of the flow of one or more process gases while the flow of one or more process gases moves over the surface of the substrate.

Method for processing a substrate by oscillating a boundary layer of the flow of one or more process gases over a surface of a substrate and systems for processing a substrate using the method

The methods, systems and apparatus described herein relate to chamber conditioning for remote plasma processes, in particular remote nitrogen-based plasma processes. Certain implementations of the disclosure relate to remote plasma inhibition processes for feature fill that include chamber conditioning. Embodiments of the disclosure relate to exposing remote plasma processing chambers to fluorine species prior to nitrogen-based remote plasma processing of substrates such as semiconductor wafers. Within-wafer uniformity and wafer-to-wafer uniformity is improved.

Chamber conditioning for remote plasma process

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Tsung-Han Yang