Patent application number | Description | Published |
20100096273 | CU SURFACE PLASMA TREATMENT TO IMPROVE GAPFILL WINDOW - A method and apparatus for selectively controlling deposition rate of conductive material during an electroplating process. Dopants are predominantly incorporated into a conductive seed layer on field regions of a substrate prior to filling openings in the field regions by electroplating. A substrate is positioned in one or more processing chambers, and barrier and conductive seed layers formed. A dopant precursor is provided to the chamber and ionized, with or without voltage bias. The dopant predominantly incorporates into the conductive seed layer on the field regions. Electrical conductivity of the conductive seed layer on the field regions is reduced relative to that of the conductive seed layer in the openings, resulting in low initial deposition rate of metal on the field regions during electroplating, and little or no void formation in the metal deposited in the openings. | 04-22-2010 |
20100105203 | METHODS FOR REDUCING DAMAGE TO SUBSTRATE LAYERS IN DEPOSITION PROCESSES - Methods of processing a substrate are provided herein. In some embodiments, a method of processing a substrate may include providing a substrate to a process chamber comprising a dielectric layer having a feature formed therein. A barrier layer may be formed within the feature. A coating of a first conductive material may be formed atop the barrier layer. A seed layer of the first conductive material may be formed atop the coating. The feature may be filled with a second conductive material. In some embodiments, the seed layer may be formed while maintaining the substrate at a temperature of greater than about 40 degrees Celsius. | 04-29-2010 |
20100155223 | Electromagnet array in a sputter reactor - A multi-step process performed in a plasma sputter chamber including sputter deposition from the target and argon sputter etching of the substrate. The chamber includes a quadruple electromagnetic coil array coaxially arranged in a rectangular array about a chamber axis outside the sidewalls of a plasma sputter reactor in back of an RF coil within the chamber. The coil currents can be separately controlled to produce different magnetic field distributions, for example, between a sputter deposition mode in which the sputter target is powered to sputter target material onto a wafer and a sputter etch mode in which the RF coil supports the argon sputtering plasma. A TaN/Ta barrier is first sputter deposited with high target power and wafer bias. Argon etching is performed with even higher wafer bias. A flash step is applied with reduced target power and wafer bias. | 06-24-2010 |
20110315319 | PRE-CLEAN CHAMBER WITH REDUCED ION CURRENT - Apparatus for processing substrates are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, a substrate processing system may include a process chamber having a first volume to receive a plasma and a second volume for processing a substrate; a substrate support disposed in the second volume; and a plasma filter disposed in the process chamber between the first volume and the second volume such that a plasma formed in the first volume can only flow from the first volume to the second volume through the plasma filter. In some embodiments, the substrate processing system includes a process kit coupled to the process chamber, wherein the plasma filter is disposed in the process kit. | 12-29-2011 |
20120225558 | METHODS FOR CONTACT CLEAN - Methods and apparatus for removing oxide from a surface, the surface comprising at least one of silicon and germanium, are provided. The method and apparatus are particularly suitable for removing native oxide from a metal silicide layer of a contact structure. The method and apparatus advantageously integrate both the etch stop layer etching process and the native oxide removal process in a single chamber, thereby eliminating native oxide growth or other contaminates redeposit during the substrate transfer processes. Furthermore, the method and the apparatus also provides the improved three-step chemical reaction process to efficiently remove native oxide from the metal silicide layer without adversely altering the geometry of the contact structure and the critical dimension of the trenches or vias formed in the contact structure. | 09-06-2012 |
20120276740 | METHODS FOR PRECLEANING A SUBSTRATE PRIOR TO METAL SILICIDE FABRICATION PROCESS - Methods for precleaning native oxides or other contaminants from a surface of a substrate prior to forming a metal silicide layer on the substrate. In one embodiment, a method for removing native oxides from a substrate includes transferring a substrate having an oxide layer disposed thereon into a processing chamber, performing a pretreatment process on the substrate by supplying a pretreatment gas mixture into the processing chamber, performing an oxide removal process on the substrate by supplying a cleaning gas mixture into the processing chamber, wherein the cleaning gas mixture includes at least an ammonium gas and a nitrogen trifluoride, and performing a post treatment process on the cleaned substrate by supplying a post treatment gas mixture into the processing chamber | 11-01-2012 |
20130193108 | METHODS OF END POINT DETECTION FOR SUBSTRATE FABRICATION PROCESSES - Methods and substrate processing systems for analyzing an end point of a process are provided. By-products of the process are detected and monitored to determine the completion of various types of reaction processes within a substrate processing chamber. The methods provide real time process monitoring, thereby reducing the need to rigidly constrain other substrate processing parameters, increasing chamber cleaning efficiency, and/or increasing substrate processing throughput. | 08-01-2013 |
20130228933 | BEOL Interconnect With Carbon Nanotubes - An integrated circuit with BEOL interconnects may comprise: a substrate including a semiconductor device; a first layer of dielectric over the surface of the substrate, the first layer of dielectric including a filled via for making electrical contact to the semiconductor device; and a second layer of dielectric on the first layer of dielectric, the second layer of dielectric including a trench running perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the filled via, the trench being filled with an interconnect line, the interconnect line comprising cross-linked carbon nanotubes and being physically and electrically connected to the filled via. Cross-linked CNTs are grown on catalyst particles on the bottom of the trench using growth conditions including a partial pressure of precursor gas greater than the transition partial pressure at which carbon nanotube growth transitions from a parallel carbon nanotube growth mode to a cross-linked carbon nanotube growth mode. | 09-05-2013 |
20130316533 | METHOD FOR REMOVING NATIVE OXIDE AND ASSOCIATED RESIDUE FROM A SUBSTRATE - Native oxides and associated residue are removed from surfaces of a substrate by sequentially performing two plasma cleaning processes on the substrate in a single processing chamber. The first plasma cleaning process removes native oxide formed on a substrate surface by generating a cleaning plasma from a mixture of ammonia (NH | 11-28-2013 |
20140295665 | METHOD FOR REMOVING NATIVE OXIDE AND ASSOCIATED RESIDUE FROM A SUBSTRATE - Native oxides and associated residue are removed from surfaces of a substrate by sequentially performing two plasma cleaning processes on the substrate in a single processing chamber. The first plasma cleaning process removes native oxide formed on a substrate surface by generating a cleaning plasma from a mixture of ammonia (NH | 10-02-2014 |