Reducing hydrogen concentration in pecvd amorphous silicon carbide films.
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorXIANG YU YAO
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention provides a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition method and apparatus for reducing the hydrogen concentration in amorphous silicon carbide films deposited on a substrate. The process combines a noble gas such as helium with a silicon source such as silane and a carbon source such as methane in the reaction zone of a CVD chamber. The resulting silicon carbide films have a low concentration of hydrogen and high compressive stress. The films are preferably produced with a plasma generated by a mixture of high and low radio frequency.
Claims20
A method for depositing a silicon carbide film onto a substrate, comprising the steps of:
- providing a silicon source, a carbon source, and a noble gas in a reaction zone containing a substrate;
- and
- reacting the silicon source and the carbon source in the presence of a plasma to deposit a silicon carbide film on the substrate.
A method for plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition of a silicon carbide film having a reduced concentration of hydrogen onto a substrate surface, comprising the steps of:
- supplying a noble gas and reactant gases comprising a silicon source and a carbon source into a deposition chamber containing a substrate;
- applying a radio frequency bias sufficient to generate a plasma adjacent a surface of the substrate;
- and
- reacting the silicon source and the carbon source in the presence of the plasma to deposit a silicon carbide film on the surface of the substrate.
An improved plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition process comprising the steps of supplying reactant gases comprising a silicon source and a carbon source into a deposition chamber containing a substrate, applying a radio frequency bias sufficient to generate a plasma adjacent a surface of the substrate, and reacting the silicon source and the carbon source in the presence of the plasma to deposit a silicon carbide film on the surface of the substrate, the improvement comprising the step of supplying a noble gas with the reactant gases.
A substrate processing system, comprising:
- a vacuum chamber comprising a reaction zone, a substrate holder for positioning a substrate in the reaction zone, and a vacuum system;
- a gas distribution system connecting the reaction zone of the vacuum chamber to supplies of a silicon source, a carbon source, and a noble gas;
- an RF generator coupled to the gas distribution system for generating a plasma in the reaction zone;
- a controller comprising a computer for controlling the vacuum chamber, the gas distribution system, and the RF generator;
- and
- a memory coupled to the controller, the memory comprising a computer usable medium comprising a computer readable program code for selecting a plasma enhanced reaction of the silicon source and the carbon source in the presence of a noble gas to deposit a silicon carbide film.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.