Applied Materials, Inc.

Other

Micro Materials Inc.

Appleid Materials, Inc

Applied Mateials, Inc.

Xikun Wang

Nitin K Ingle

Anchuan Wang

Jie Liu

Jeffrey W Anthis

Soonam Park

Benjamin Schmiege

Shaoher X Pan

Roey Shaviv

Meihua Shen

Lin Xu

David Benjaminson

Srinivas D Nemani

Dmitry Lubomirsky

Wei Liu

Mikhail Korolik

Zhenjiang Cui

Jianxin Lei

Mandar Balasaheb Pandit

Jessica Sevanne Kachian

Scott M Williams

Jennifer Y Sun

Andrew Nguyen

Hong Shih

Jeffrey D Chinn

Gerald Z Yin

Gaurav Thareja

Hui W Chen

Li Xu

Sanjay S Natarajan

Sean M Seutter

Zihui Li

Ching-Mei Hsu

Xue-Yu Qian

Ismail T Emesh

Ming-Hsun Yang

Changhun Lee

Seung H Park

Weinan Jiang

Keyvan Kashefizadeh

Zhi-wen Sun

Arthur Y Chen

Xiaoming He

Yan Du

Dong Wu

Ming-Hsun Kuo

Vinod Robert Purayath

Wai-Fan Yau

Sang-Jin Kim

Chun Yan

Naomi Yoshida

Regina Germanie Freed

David S Mui

Ho-yung David Hwang

Shashank C Deshmukh

Uday Mitra

Amrita B Mullick

David S L Mui

Guangxiang Jin

Wenting Hou

Steve S Y Mak

Soumendra N Barman

Anbei Jiang

David Cui

Mei Hua Shen

Uwe Leucke

In-situ low pressure chamber cleans and gas nozzle apparatus for plasma processing systems employing in-situ deposited chamber coatings. Certain chamber clean embodiments for conductor etch applications include an NF-based plasma clean performed at pressures below 30 mT to remove in-situ deposited SiOcoatings from interior surfaces of a gas nozzle hole. Embodiments include a gas nozzle with bottom holes dimensioned sufficiently small to reduce or prevent the in-situ deposited chamber coatings from building up a SiOdeposits on interior surfaces of a nozzle hole.

Method and apparatus for reducing particle defects in plasma etch chambers

A semiconductor device fabrication process includes forming gates on a substrate having a plurality of openings, each gate having a conducting layer a first metal and a gate dielectric layer of a first dielectric material, partially filling the openings with a second dielectric material, forming a first structure on the substrate in a processing system without breaking vacuum, depositing a third dielectric material over the first structure, and forming a planarized surface of the gates and a surface of the third dielectric material that is disposed over the first structure. The forming of the first structure includes forming trenches by removing second portions of the second dielectric material within each opening, forming recessed active regions in the trenches by partially filling the trenches with a second metal, forming a liner over each recessed active region, and forming a metal cap layer over each liner.

Gate contact over active regions

Semiconductor processing systems are described, which may include a substrate support assembly having a substrate support surface. Exemplary substrate support assemblies may include a ceramic heater defining the substrate support surface. The assemblies may include a ground plate on which the ceramic heater is seated. The assemblies may include a stem with which the ground plate is coupled. The assemblies may include an electrode embedded within the ceramic heater at a depth from the substrate support surface. The chambers or systems may also include an RF match configured to provide an AC current and an RF power through the stem to the electrode. The RF match may be coupled with the substrate support assembly along the stem. The substrate support assembly and RF match may be vertically translatable within the semiconductor processing system.

High temperature RF heater pedestals

Methods and apparatus for forming an interconnect, including: depositing a first barrier layer upon a top surface of a via and a top surface of a trench; filling the via with a first metal, wherein the first metal completely fills the via and forms a metal layer within the trench; etching the metal layer within the trench to expose dielectric sidewalls of the trench, a top surface of the via, and a dielectric bottom of the trench; depositing a second barrier layer upon the dielectric sidewalls, top surface of the via, and the dielectric bottom of the trench; and filling the trench with a second metal different than the first metal.

Methods and apparatus for hybrid feature metallization

Gate contact over active processes

Embodiments of methods and apparatus for filling a feature disposed in a substrate are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, a method for filling a feature disposed in a substrate includes (a) depositing a metal within the feature to a first predetermined thickness in a first process chamber; (b) depositing the metal within the feature to a second predetermined thickness in a second process chamber; (c) etching the metal deposited in (b) to remove an overhang of the metal at a top of the feature in a third process chamber different than the first and second process chambers; and (d) subsequent to (c), filling the feature with the metal in a fourth process chamber different than the first and third process chambers.

Methods and apparatus for filling a feature disposed in a substrate

Exemplary methods for removing cobalt material may include flowing a chlorine-containing precursor into a processing region of a semiconductor processing chamber. The methods may include forming a plasma of the chlorine-containing precursor to produce plasma effluents. The methods may also include contacting an exposed region of cobalt with the plasma effluents. The exposed region of cobalt may include an overhang of cobalt on a trench defined on a substrate. The plasma effluents may produce cobalt chloride at the overhang of cobalt. The methods may include flowing a nitrogen-containing precursor into the processing region of the semiconductor processing chamber. The methods may further include contacting the cobalt chloride with the nitrogen-containing precursor. The methods may also include recessing the overhang of cobalt.

Selective cobalt removal for bottom up gapfill

Methods are described herein for etching tantalum-containing films with various potential additives while still retaining other desirable patterned substrate portions. The methods include exposing a tantalum-containing film to a chlorine-containing precursor (e.g. Cl) with a concurrent plasma. The plasma-excited chlorine-containing precursor selectively etches the tantalum-containing film and other industrially-desirable additives. Chlorine is then removed from the substrate processing region. A hydrogen-containing precursor (e.g. H) is delivered to the substrate processing region (also with plasma excitation) to produce a relatively even and residue-free tantalum-containing surface. The methods presented remove tantalum while retaining materials elsewhere on the patterned substrate.

Tantalum-containing material removal

Apparatuses and methods to provide a fully self-aligned via are described. Some embodiments of the disclosure provide an electronic device having a liner that is selectively removable when compared to conductive lines. The liner may be selectively removed by utilizing one or more of a base (e.g. sodium hydroxide) and hydrogen peroxide.

Method for creating a fully self-aligned via

Methods are described herein for etching metal films which are difficult to volatize. The methods include exposing a metal film to a chlorine-containing precursor (e.g. Cl). Chlorine is then removed from the substrate processing region. A carbon-and-nitrogen-containing precursor (e.g. TMEDA) is delivered to the substrate processing region to form volatile metal complexes which desorb from the surface of the metal film. The methods presented remove metal while very slowly removing the other exposed materials. A thin metal oxide layer may be present on the surface of the metal layer, in which case a local plasma from hydrogen may be used to remove the oxygen or amorphize the near surface region, which has been found to increase the overall etch rate.

Oxide and metal removal

Exemplary methods for removing tungsten-containing material may include flowing a chlorine-containing precursor into a processing region of a semiconductor processing chamber. The methods may also include flowing methane into the processing region of the semiconductor processing chamber. The methods may include forming a plasma from the chlorine-containing precursor and the methane to produce plasma effluents. The methods may also include contacting a substrate with the plasma effluents. The substrate may include an exposed region of a tungsten-containing material. The plasma effluents may produce an oxychloride of tungsten. The methods may also include recessing the exposed region of the tungsten-containing material.

Selective tungsten removal

Provided are methods for etching films comprising transition metals which help to minimize higher etch rates at the grain boundaries of polycrystalline materials. Certain methods pertain to amorphization of the polycrystalline material, other pertain to plasma treatments, and yet other pertain to the use of small doses of halide transfer agents in the etch process.

Methods of etching films with reduced surface roughness

Exemplary methods for removing cobalt material may include flowing a chlorine-containing precursor into a processing region of a semiconductor processing chamber. The methods may include forming a plasma of the chlorine-containing precursor to produce plasma effluents. The methods may also include contacting an exposed region of cobalt with the plasma effluents. The methods may include flowing a nitrogen-containing precursor into the processing region of the semiconductor processing chamber. The methods may further include contacting the cobalt chloride with the nitrogen-containing precursor. The methods may also include recessing the cobalt, which leaves a residue behind. The methods may include forming a remote plasma of a hydrogen-containing precursor. The methods may also include removing the cobalt residue using plasma effluents of the hydrogen-containing precursor.

Selective in situ cobalt residue removal

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Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Xikun Wang