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:
Jun. 24, 2003
Filed:
Oct. 10, 2000
Tony P. Chiang, San Jose, CA (US);
Yu D. Cong, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Peijun Ding, San Jose, CA (US);
Jianming Fu, San Jose, CA (US);
Howard H. Tang, San Jose, CA (US);
Anish Tolia, San Jose, CA (US);
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A DC magnetron sputter reactor for sputtering copper, its method of use, and shields and other parts promoting self-ionized plasma (SIP) sputtering, preferably at pressures below 5 milliTorr, preferably below 1 milliTorr. Also, a method of coating copper into a narrow and deep via or trench using SIP for a first copper layer. SIP is promoted by a small magnetron having poles of unequal magnetic strength and a high power applied to the target during sputtering. The SIP copper layer can act as a seed and nucleation layer for hole filling with conventional sputtering (PVD) or with electrochemical plating (ECP). For very high aspect-ratio holes, a copper seed layer is deposited by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) over the SIP copper nucleation layer, and PVD or ECP completes the hole filling. The copper seed layer may be deposited by a combination of SIP and high-density plasma sputtering. For very narrow holes, the CVD copper layer may fill the hole.