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:
Dec. 05, 2006
Filed:
Oct. 23, 2002
James A. Fair, Mountain View, CA (US);
Jungwan Sung, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Nerissa Taylor, Milpitas, CA (US);
James A. Fair, Mountain View, CA (US);
Jungwan Sung, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Nerissa Taylor, Milpitas, CA (US);
Novellus Systems, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
An ALD method deposits conformal tantalum-containing material layers on small features of a substrate surface. The method includes the following principal operations: depositing a thin conformal and saturated layer of tantalum-containing precursor over some or all of the substrate surface; using an inert gas or hydrogen plasma to purge the halogen byproducts and unused reactants; reducing the precursor to convert it to a conformal layer of tantalum or tantalum-containing material; using another purge of inert gas or hydrogen plasma to remove the halogen byproducts and unused reactants; and repeating the deposition/reduction cycles until a desired tantalum-containing material layer is achieved. An optional step of treating each newly formed surface of tantalum containing material with a nitrogen-containing agent can be added to create varying amounts of tantalum nitride.