PEALD nitride films
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsHanhong Chen, Philip A. Kraus, Joseph AuBuchon
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Abstract
A method of depositing nitride films is disclosed. Some embodiments of the disclosure provide a PEALD process for depositing nitride films which utilizes separate reaction and nitridation plasmas. In some embodiments, the nitride films have improved growth per cycle (GPC) relative to films deposited by thermal processes or plasma processes with only a single plasma exposure. In some embodiments, the nitride films have improved film quality relative to films deposited by thermal processes or plasma processes with only a single plasma exposure.
Claims16
A method of depositing a nitride film, the method comprising:
- exposing a substrate to a precursor to form a reactive species on the substrate;
- exposing the reactive species to a first plasma gas flow formed from a first plasma gas to form an activated species, the first plasma gas comprising N2;
- and
- exposing the activated species to a second plasma gas flow formed from a second plasma gas to form the nitride film, the second plasma gas comprising NH3, wherein the first plasma gas flow and the second plasma gas flow are separated by a purge gas, and the method defines a deposition cycle, and the deposition cycle is repeated until a predetermined thickness of the nitride film has been formed.
A method of depositing a silicon nitride film, the method comprising:
- exposing a substrate to SiH2Cl2 to form a silicon species on the substrate;
- exposing the silicon species to a first plasma gas flow formed from a first plasma gas comprising N2 and Ar to form an activated species;
- and
- exposing the activated species to a second plasma gas flow formed from a second plasma gas comprising NH3 and Ar to form the silicon nitride film, wherein the first plasma gas flow and the second plasma gas flow are separated by a purge gas, the method defines a deposition cycle, and the deposition cycle is repeated to form a silicon nitride film of a predetermined thickness.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.