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US 11,827,514 B2Granted
Amorphous silicon-based films resistant to crystallization
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsAykut Aydin, Krishna Nittala, Karthik Janakiraman, Yi Yang, Gautam K. Hemani
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Abstract
Deposition methods may prevent or reduce crystallization of silicon in a deposited amorphous silicon film that may occur after annealing at high temperatures. The crystallization of silicon may be prevented by doping the silicon with an element. The element may be boron, carbon, or phosphorous. Doping above a certain concentration for the element prevents substantial crystallization at high temperatures and for durations at or greater than 30 minutes. Methods and devices are described.
Claims14
A deposition method comprising:
- delivering a silicon-containing precursor and a dopant-containing precursor to a processing region of a semiconductor processing chamber, wherein:
- the dopant-containing precursor comprises boron, carbon, or phosphorous, and
- an atomic percentage of dopant atoms in the dopant-containing precursor to a sum of dopant atoms in the dopant-containing precursor and silicon atoms in the silicon-containing precursor is in a range from 5% to 40%;
- forming a plasma of the silicon-containing precursor and the dopant-containing precursor within the processing region of the semiconductor processing chamber;
- depositing a silicon-and-dopant material on a substrate disposed within the processing region of the semiconductor processing chamber;
- and
- performing a thermal anneal of the silicon-and-dopant material to form an annealed silicon-and-dopant material on the substrate, the annealed silicon-and-dopant material being substantially free of crystalline silicon.
4 more elements
A method comprising:
- delivering a silicon-containing precursor and a boron-containing precursor to a processing region of a semiconductor processing chamber, wherein an atomic percentage of dopant atoms in the boron-containing precursor to a sum of dopant atoms in the boron-containing precursor and silicon atoms in the silicon-containing precursor is in a range from 5% to 40%;
- forming a plasma of the silicon-containing precursor and the boron-containing precursor within the processing region of the semiconductor processing chamber;
- depositing a silicon-and-boron material on a substrate disposed within the processing region of the semiconductor processing chamber;
- patterning the silicon-and-boron material to form a patterned silicon-and-boron material;
- depositing a silicon nitride material by atomic layer deposition on the patterned silicon-and-boron material;
- and
- performing a thermal anneal of the patterned silicon-and-boron material at a temperature in a range from 650° C. to 750° C. to form an annealed silicon-and-boron material, the annealed silicon-and-boron material being substantially free of crystalline silicon.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.