The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 08, 2026
Filed:
Sep. 01, 2023
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Yi Xu, San Jose, CA (US);
Xianyuan Zhao, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Zhimin Qi, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Aixi Zhang, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Geraldine Vasquez, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Dien-Yeh Wu, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Wei Lei, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Xingyao Gao, San Jose, CA (US);
Shirish Pethe, Cupertino, CA (US);
Wenting Hou, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Chao Du, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Tsung-Han Yang, San Jose, CA (US);
Kyoung-Ho Bu, Pleasanton, CA (US);
Chen-Han Lin, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Jallepally Ravi, San Ramon, CA (US);
Yu Lei, Belmont, CA (US);
Rongjun Wang, Dublin, CA (US);
Xianmin Tang, San Jose, CA (US);
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for forming tungsten features in semiconductor devices is provided. The method includes exposing a top opening of a feature formed in a substrate to a physical vapor deposition (PVD) process to deposit a tungsten liner layer within the feature. The PVD process is performed in a first processing region of a first processing chamber and the tungsten liner layer forms an overhang portion, which partially obstructs the top opening of the feature. The substrate is transferred from the first processing region of the first processing chamber to a second processing region of a second processing chamber without breaking vacuum. The overhang portion is exposed to nitrogen-containing radicals in the second processing region to inhibit subsequent growth of tungsten along the overhang portion. The feature is exposed to a tungsten-containing precursor gas to form a tungsten fill layer over the tungsten liner layer within the feature.