Barrier-free approach for forming contact plugs
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsChing-Yi Chen, Sheng-Hsuan Lin, Wei-Yip Loh, Hung-Hsu Chen, Chih-Wei Chang
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Abstract
A method includes etching a dielectric layer of a substrate to form an opening in the dielectric layer, forming a metal layer extending into the opening, performing an anneal process, so that a bottom portion of the metal layer reacts with a semiconductor region underlying the metal layer to form a source/drain region, performing a plasma treatment process on the substrate using a process gas including hydrogen gas and a nitrogen-containing gas to form a silicon-and-nitrogen-containing layer, and depositing a metallic material on the silicon-and-nitrogen-containing layer.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- etching a dielectric layer to form an opening, wherein a conductive region is exposed to the opening;
- performing a thermal soaking process on the dielectric layer and the conductive region using a silicon-containing process gas;
- after the thermal soaking process, performing a plasma treatment process directly on the dielectric layer using a process gas comprising hydrogen and nitrogen to form a silicon-and-nitrogen-containing layer;
- and
- depositing a metallic material on the silicon-and-nitrogen-containing layer, wherein the metallic material is electrically coupled to the conductive region.
A method comprising:
- etching a dielectric layer of a wafer to form an opening in the dielectric layer;
- forming a silicide region on a source/drain region and in the opening;
- performing a plasma treatment process using a process gas comprising hydrogen and nitrogen, wherein the process gas is fed into the opening, and wherein the plasma treatment process is performed on the silicide region;
- and
- after the plasma treatment process, depositing a metallic layer comprising a metal on the dielectric layer, wherein a part of the metallic layer is deposited in the opening, wherein covalence Si—N-metal bonds are formed between the metallic layer and the dielectric layer, wherein the metal comprised in the covalence Si—N-metal bonds is in the metallic layer, and wherein the plasma treatment process and the depositing the metallic layer are performed in a same vacuum environment.
A method comprising:
- forming a contact opening in a dielectric layer;
- forming a silicide region in the contact opening and on a surface of a source/drain region;
- performing a treatment process directly on the dielectric layer to generate a silicon-and-nitrogen containing layer;
- and
- depositing a metal layer over and contacting the silicon-and-nitrogen containing layer, wherein covalence Si—N-metal bonds are formed to join the metal layer to the silicon-and-nitrogen containing layer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.