Applied Materials, Inc.

Xuesong Lu

Lin Zhang

Andrew V Le

Jang Seok Oh

Xianmin Tang

Yu Lei

Tae Hong Ha

Yufei Hu

Andrew Nguyen

Avgerinos V Gelatos

Tza-Jing Gung

Raymond Hoiman Hung

Takashi Kuratomi

Wei Lei

Hui Sun

Shawyon Jafari

Mark Hyun Lee

Ralph Peter Antonio

Patrick L Smith

Fa Ji

Szuheng Ho

Srinivas Gandikota

Philip Allan Kraus

Mehul B Naik

He Ren

Xinliang Lu

Chien-Teh Kao

Xinhai Han

Hao Chen

Naomi Yoshida

Benjamin Schmiege

Michael Johnson

Chong Jiang

Hao Jiang

Pingyan Lei

Hyman W H Lam

Joseph C Werner

Chi-Chou Lin

Chung Liu

Rajkumar Jakkaraju

Chikuang Charles Wang

Benjamin C Wang

Yung-Hsin Lee

Chenfei Shen

Juno Yu-Ting Huang

Ghazal Saheli

Malcolm Emil Delaney

Balaji Pasupathy

Andy Le

Anup Phatak

Described is a process to clean up junction interfaces for fabricating semiconductor devices involving forming low-resistance electrical connections between vertically separated regions. An etch can be performed to remove silicon oxide on silicon surface at the bottom of a recessed feature. Described are methods and apparatus for etching up the bottom oxide of a hole or trench while minimizing the effects to the underlying epitaxial layer and to the dielectric layers on the field and the corners of metal gate structures. The method for etching features involves a reaction chamber equipped with a combination of capacitively coupled plasma and inductive coupled plasma. CHFgases and plasma are used to form protection layer, which enables the selectively etching of bottom silicon dioxide by NH—NFplasma. Ideally, silicon oxide on EPI is removed to ensure low-resistance electric contact while the epitaxial layer and field/corner dielectric layers are—etched only minimally or not at all.

Directional selective junction clean with field polymer protections

Methods for producing a reduced contact resistance for cobalt-titanium structures. In some embodiments, a method comprises depositing a titanium layer using a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, depositing a first cobalt layer on the titanium nitride layer using a physical vapor deposition (PVD) process, and depositing a second cobalt layer on the first cobalt layer using a CVD process.

Methods for controlling contact resistance in cobalt-titanium structures

Embodiments herein provide methods of monitoring temperatures of fluid delivery conduits for delivering fluids to, and other components external to, a processing volume of a processing chamber used in electronic device fabrication manufacturing, and monitoring systems related thereto. In one embodiment, a method of monitoring a processing system includes receiving, through a data acquisition device, temperature information from one or more temperature sensors and receiving context information from a system controller coupled to a processing system comprising the processing chamber. Here, the one or more temperature sensors are disposed in one or more locations external to a processing volume of a processing chamber. The context information relates to instructions executed by the system controller to control one or more operations of the processing system.

Advanced temperature monitoring system and methods for semiconductor manufacture productivity

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to methods of cleaning a structure and methods of depositing a capping layer in a structure. The method of cleaning a structure includes suppling a cleaning gas, including a first gas including nitrogen (N) and a second gas including fluorine (F), to a bottom surface of a structure. The cleaning gas removes unwanted metal oxide and etch residue from the bottom surface of the structure. The method of depositing a capping layer includes depositing the capping layer over the bottom surface of the structure. The methods described herein reduce the amount of unwanted metal oxides and residue, which improves adhesion of deposited capping layers.

Method of cleaning a structure and method of depositing a capping layer in a structure

A method includes receiving a plurality of sets of sensor data associated with a processing chamber of a substrate processing system. Each of the plurality of sets of sensor data comprises a corresponding sensor value of the processing chamber mapped to a corresponding spacing value of the processing chamber. The method further includes providing the plurality of sets of sensor data as input to a trained machine learning model. The method further includes obtaining, from the trained machine learning model, one or more outputs indicative of a health of the processing chamber. The method further includes causing, based on the one or more outputs, performance of one or more corrective actions associated with the processing chamber.

Chamber matching and calibration

Described is a process to clean up junction interfaces for fabricating semiconductor devices involving forming low-resistance electrical connections between vertically separated regions. An etch can be performed to remove silicon oxide on silicon surface at the bottom of a recessed feature. Described are methods and apparatus for etching up the bottom oxide of a hole or trench while minimizing the effects to the underlying epitaxial layer and to the dielectric layers on the field and the corners of metal gate structures. The method for etching features involves a reaction chamber equipped with a combination of capacitively coupled plasma and inductive coupled plasma. CHFgases and plasma are used to form protection layer, which enables the selectively etching of bottom silicon dioxide by NH&#x2014;NFplasma. Ideally, silicon oxide on EPI is removed to ensure low-resistance electric contact while the epitaxial layer and field/corner dielectric layers are&#x2014;etched only minimally or not at all.

Methods and apparatus for producing a reduced contact resistance for cobalt-titanium structures. In some embodiments, a method comprises depositing a titanium layer using a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, depositing a titanium nitride layer on the titanium layer using an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process, depositing a first cobalt layer on the titanium nitride layer using a physical vapor deposition (PVD) process, and depositing a second cobalt layer on the first cobalt layer using a CVD process.

Methods and apparatus for controlling contact resistance in cobalt-titanium structures

An FI having an in-situ particle detector and a method for particle detection therein are provided. In one aspect, the FI includes a fan, a substrate support, a particle detector, and an exhaust outlet. The fan, substrate support, and particle detector are arranged such that, in operation, the fan directs air towards the exhaust outlet and over a substrate on the substrate support to create laminar flow. The particle detector, positioned downstream from the substrate support and upstream from the exhaust outlet, analyzes the air and detects particle concentration before the particles are exhausted. The collected particle detection data may be combined with data from other sensors in the FI and used to identify the source of particle contamination. The particle detector may also be incorporated into other system components, including but not limited to, a load-lock or buffer chamber to detect particle concentration therein.

Advanced in-situ particle detection system for semiconductor substrate processing systems

Embodiments described herein relate to apparatus and coating methods to reduce chamber arcing, for example, in HDP-CVD, PECVD, PE-ALD and Etch chambers. The apparatus include a ring shaped gas distributor used for in-situ deposition of coating materials, and a process chamber including the same. The ring shaped gas distributor includes a ring shaped body having at least one gas entrance port disposed on a first side thereof and a plurality of gas distribution ports disposed on a first surface of the ring shaped body. The plurality of gas distribution ports are arranged in a plurality of evenly distributed rows. The plurality of gas distribution ports in a first row of the plurality of evenly distributed rows is adapted to direct gas at an exit angle different from an exit angle of the plurality of gas distribution ports in a second row of the plurality of evenly distributed rows.

Advanced coating method and materials to prevent HDP-CVD chamber arcing

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide methodology to match and calibrate processing chamber performance in a processing chamber. In one embodiment, a method for calibrating a processing chamber for semiconductor manufacturing process includes performing a first predetermined process in a processing chamber, collecting a first set of signals transmitted from a first group of sensors disposed in the processing chamber to a controller while performing the predetermined process, analyzing the collected first set of signals, comparing the collected first set of signals with database stored in the controller to check sensor responses from the first group of sensors, calibrating sensors based on the collected first set of signals when a mismatch sensor response is found, subsequently performing a first series of processes in the processing chamber, and collecting a second set of signals transmitted from the sensors to the controller while performing the series of processes.

Methodology for chamber performance matching for semiconductor equipment

Embodiments of the disclosure include methods for in-situ chamber cleaning efficiency enhancement process for a plasma processing chamber utilized for a semiconductor substrate fabrication process. In one embodiment, a method for performing a plasma treatment process after cleaning a plasma process includes performing a cleaning process in a plasma processing chamber in absent of a substrate disposed thereon, subsequently supplying a plasma treatment gas mixture including at least a hydrogen containing gas and/or an oxygen containing gas into the plasma processing chamber, applying a RF source power to the processing chamber to form a plasma from the plasma treatment gas mixture, and plasma treating an interior surface of the processing chamber.

Plasma treatment process for in-situ chamber cleaning efficiency enhancement in plasma processing chamber

Methods for depositing titanium oxide films by atomic layer deposition are disclosed. Titanium oxide films may include a titanium nitride cap, an oxygen rich titanium nitride cap or a mixed oxide nitride layer. Also described are methods for self-aligned double patterning including titanium oxide spacer films.

Deposition methods for uniform and conformal hybrid titanium oxide films

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Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Xuesong Lu