Apparatus and method for manufacturing metal gate structures
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsChen-Yu Lee, Yen-Yu Chen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Semiconductor processing apparatuses and methods are provided in which a pre-clean chamber receives a semiconductor wafer from a metal gate layer deposition chamber and at least partially removes an oxide layer on a metal gate layer. In some embodiments, a semiconductor processing apparatus includes a plurality of metal gate layer deposition chambers. Each of the metal gate layer deposition chambers is configured to form a metal gate layer on a semiconductor wafer. At least one pre-clean chamber of the apparatus is configured to receive the semiconductor wafer from one of the metal gate layer deposition chamber and at least partially remove an oxide layer on the metal gate layer.
Claims20
A method, comprising:
- transferring a wafer to a first metal gate layer deposition chamber of a first cluster of process chambers of a semiconductor processing apparatus;
- transferring, with a first wafer handling robot arm, the wafer from the first metal gate layer deposition chamber of the first cluster of process chambers;
- transferring the wafer from a first pre-clean chamber to a second metal gate layer deposition chamber of a second cluster of process chambers of the semiconductor processing apparatus;
- and
- transferring, with a second wafer handling robot arm, the wafer from the second metal gate layer deposition chamber to a second pre-clean chamber of the second cluster of process chambers.
A semiconductor processing apparatus, comprising:
- a first load lock;
- a second load lock;
- a first wafer handling robot configured to transport the semiconductor wafer from a load/unload port to the first load lock;
- a first cluster of process chambers including a first joint pre-clean and degas chamber, a pre-clean chamber, and a first metal layer deposition chamber;
- a second wafer handling robot configured to transport the semiconductor wafer from the first load lock to the first cluster of process chambers;
- a second cluster of process chambers including a second metal layer deposition chamber and a second pre-clean chamber;
- and
- a third wafer handling robot configured to transport the semiconductor wafer from the first cluster of process chambers to the second cluster of process chambers.
A method, comprising:
- forming a first metal gate layer on a semiconductor wafer in a first process chamber of a first cluster of process chambers of a semiconductor processing apparatus;
- removing moisture from the wafer by performing a degassing process on the semiconductor wafer in a second process chamber of the semiconductor processing apparatus;
- at least partially removing an oxide layer from the first metal gate layer by performing a first precleaning process on the semiconductor wafer in the second process chamber of the semiconductor processing apparatus;
- forming a second metal gate layer on the first metal gate layer, in a first process chamber of a second cluster of process chambers of the semiconductor processing apparatus;
- and
- at least partially removing a second oxide layer on a surface of the second metal gate layer by performing a second precleaning process in a second process chamber of the second cluster of process chambers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.