Method of subatmospheric plasma-enhanced ALD using capacitively coupled electrodes with narrow gap
AssigneeASM IP Holding B.V.
InventorsAtsuki Fukazawa, Masaru Zaitsu, Masaki Tokunaga, Hideaki Fukuda
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for depositing a film by plasma-enhanced subatmospheric-pressure atomic layer deposition (subatmospheric PEALD) is conducted using capacitively coupled parallel plate electrodes with a gap of 1 mm to 5 mm, wherein one cycle of subatmospheric PEALD includes: supplying a precursor in a pulse to the reaction chamber; continuously supplying a reactant to the reaction chamber; continuously supplying an inert gas to the reaction chamber; continuously controlling a pressure of the reaction chamber in a range of 15 kPa to 80 kPa; and applying RF power for glow discharge in a pulse to one of the parallel plate electrodes.
Claims19
A method for depositing a film by plasma-enhanced subatmospheric-pressure atomic layer deposition, comprising:
- placing a substrate between capacitively coupled parallel plate electrodes in an evacuatable reaction chamber which is a single wafer chamber, wherein a distance between the parallel plate electrodes is in a range of 1 mm to 5 mm;
- and
- depositing a film having a desired thickness on the substrate by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD), each cycle of which comprises:
- (i) supplying a precursor in a pulse to the reaction chamber;
- (ii) continuously supplying a reactant to the reaction chamber;
- (iii) continuously supplying an inert gas to the reaction chamber;
- (iv) continuously controlling a pressure of the reaction chamber in a range of 15 kPa to 80 kPa;
- and
- (v) applying RF power for glow discharge in a pulse to one of the parallel plate electrodes, wherein the pulse of supplying the precursor and the pulse of applying RF power do not overlap,
- wherein step (iv) comprises conducting at least two of the following operations while running a vacuum pump which exhausts gases from the reaction chamber:
- (a) passing the exhausting gases through a throttle valve provided downstream of the reaction chamber and upstream of the vacuum pump, (b) reducing flow of the exhausting gases while passing said gases through at least one auto pressure controller (APC) provided downstream of the reaction chamber and upstream of the vacuum pump, (c) supplying ballast gas to a flow of the exhausting gases downstream of the reaction chamber and upstream of the vacuum pump, and (d) reducing rotational speed of a motor of the vacuum pump.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.