Novellus Systems Incorporated

Vishwanathan Rangarajan

Bart Jan Van Schravendijk

Mandyam Sriram

George Andrew Antonelli

Pramod Subramonium

Dennis Michael Hausmann

Shankar Swaminathan

Jon Henri

Andrew John McKerrow

Kirthi Kattige

Ananda K Banerji

Bryan L Buckalew

Seshasayee Varadarajan

Jennifer O'Loughlin

Tony Xavier

Bart K Van Schravendijk

Methods of depositing a film on a substrate surface include surface mediated reactions in which a film is grown over one or more cycles of reactant adsorption and reaction. In one aspect, the method is characterized by intermittent delivery of dopant species to the film between the cycles of adsorption and reaction.

Plasma activated conformal dielectric film deposition

Hardmask films having high hardness and low stress are provided. In some embodiments a film has a stress of between about &#x2212;600 MPa and 600 MPa and hardness of at least about 12 GPa. In some embodiments, a hardmask film is prepared by depositing multiple sub-layers of doped or undoped silicon carbide using multiple densifying plasma post-treatments in a PECVD process chamber. In some embodiments, a hardmask film includes a high-hardness boron-containing film selected from the group consisting of SiBC, SiBN, SiBCN, BC, and BN. In some embodiments, a hardmask film includes a germanium-rich GeNmaterial comprising at least about 60 atomic % of germanium. These hardmasks can be used in a number of back-end and front-end processing schemes in integrated circuit fabrication.

Hardmask materials

A method of forming a boron nitride or boron carbon nitride dielectric produces a conformal layer without loading effect. The dielectric layer is formed by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of a boron-containing film on a substrate, at least a portion of the deposition being conducted without plasma, and then exposing the deposited boron-containing film to a plasma. The CVD component dominates the deposition process, producing a conformal film without loading effect. The dielectric is ashable, and can be removed with a hydrogen plasma without impacting surrounding materials. The dielectric has a much lower wet etch rate compared to other front end spacer or hard mask materials such as silicon oxide or silicon nitride, and has a relatively low dielectric constant, much lower then silicon nitride.

Apparatus including a plasma chamber and controller including instructions for forming a boron nitride layer

A method of forming a boron nitride or boron carbon nitride dielectric produces a conformal layer without loading effect. The dielectric layer is formed by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of a boron-containing film on a substrate, at least a portion of the deposition being conducted without plasma, and then exposing the deposited boron-containing film to a plasma. The CVD component dominates the deposition process, producing a conformal film without loading effect. The dielectric is ashable, and can be removed with a hydrogen plasma without impacting surrounding materials. The dielectric has a much lower wet etch rate compared to other front end spacer or hard mask materials such as silicon oxide or silicon nitride, and has a relatively low dielectric constant, much lower than silicon nitride.

Depositing conformal boron nitride film by CVD without plasma

Embodiments related to the cleaning of interface surfaces in a semiconductor wafer fabrication process via remote plasma processing are disclosed herein. For example, in one disclosed embodiment, a semiconductor processing apparatus includes a processing chamber, a load lock coupled to the processing chamber via a transfer port, a wafer pedestal disposed in the load lock and configured to support a wafer in the load lock, a remote plasma source configured to provide a remote plasma to the load lock, and an ion filter disposed between the remote plasma source and the wafer pedestal.

Remote plasma processing of interface surfaces

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Beaverton, OR, United States of America

Vishwanathan Rangarajan