Applied Materials, Inc.

Xingyao Gao

Yu Lei

Yi Xu

Wei Lei

Aixi Zhang

Rongjun Wang

Zhimin Qi

Shiyu Yue

Dien-Yeh Wu

Yixiong Yang

Sahil Patel

Shirish A Pethe

Geraldine M Vasquez

Ju Hyun Oh

Xiangjin Xie

Tao Huang

Xiaodong Wang

Kevin Kashefi

Tsung-Han Yang

Cong Trinh

Chih-Hsun Hsu

Jiajie Cen

Da He

Xianyuan Zhao

Xiang Chang

Patrick Po-Chun Li

Abulaiti Hairisha

Embodiments of methods and associated apparatus for filling a feature in a substrate are provided herein. In some embodiments, a method of depositing tungsten in features of a substrate includes: depositing a seed layer consisting essentially of tungsten in the features via a physical vapor deposition (PVD) process; and depositing a bulk layer consisting essentially of tungsten in the features via a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process to fill the features such that the deposition of the bulk layer is selective to within the features as compared to a field region of the substrate, wherein the CVD process is performed by flowing hydrogen gas (H) at a first flow rate and a tungsten precursor at a second flow rate, and wherein the first flow rate is less than the second flow rate.

Self field-suppression CVD tungsten (W) fill on PVD W liner

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

A method of selective metal removal via gradient oxidation for a gap-fill includes performing process cycles, each process cycle including placing a wafer having a semiconductor structure thereon into a first processing station, the semiconductor structure including a dielectric layer patterned with a feature formed therein and a seed layer formed on sidewalls and a bottom surface of the feature and a top surface of the dielectric layer, performing a reduction process on the wafer in the first processing station, performing a gradient oxidation process on the wafer in the second processing station, performing a gradient etch process on the wafer in the third processing station, and performing the gradient etch process on the wafer in the fourth processing station, wherein the first, second, third, and fourth processing stations are located in an interior volume of a processing chamber.

One chamber multi-station selective metal removal

Methods for reducing resistivity of metal gapfill include depositing a conformal layer in an opening of a feature and on a field of a substrate with a first thickness of the conformal layer of approximately 10 microns or less, depositing a non-conformal metal layer directly on the conformal layer at a bottom of the opening and directly on the field using an anisotropic deposition process. A second thickness of the non-conformal metal layer on the field and on the bottom of the feature is approximately 30 microns or greater. And depositing a metal gapfill material in the opening of the feature and on the field where the metal gapfill material completely fills the opening without any voids.

Methods for forming metal gapfill with low resistivity

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Xingyao Gao