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AssigneeNone recorded
InventorsDeenesh Padhi, Joseph Yahalom, Sivakami Ramanathan, Chris R. McGuirk, Srinivas Gandikota, Girish Dixit
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Methods and apparatus are provided for forming a metal or metal silicide layer by an electroless deposition technique. In one aspect, a method is provided for processing a substrate including depositing an initiation layer on a substrate surface, cleaning the substrate surface, and depositing a conductive material on the initiation layer by exposing the initiation layer to an electroless solution. The method may further comprise etching the substrate surface with an acidic solution and cleaning the substrate of the acidic solution prior to depositing the initiation layer. The initiation layer may be formed by exposing the substrate surface to a noble metal electroless solution or a borane-containing solution. The conductive material may be deposited with a borane-containing reducing agent. The conductive material may be used as a passivation layer, a barrier layer, a seed layer, or for use in forming a metal silicide layer.
A method of processing a substrate, comprising:
The method of claim 15 wherein the acidic solution removes between about 10 Å and about 50 Å of dielectric material disposed on the substrate surface.
A method of processing a substrate, comprising:
A method of processing a substrate, comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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Having non-planar surfaces, e.g. formed by texturisation: being rough surfaces, e.g. using hemispherical grains
Multilayered product: two or more layers only obtained by electroless plating
Heat-treatment: sequential heat treatment
Only one step pretreatment: use of organic or inorganic compounds other than metals, e.g. activation, sensitisation with polymers
Term end not estimated
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the fabrication of semiconductor devices and to the apparatus and methods for deposition, removal, and modification of materials on a semiconductor substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
So that the manner in which the above recited aspects of the invention are attained and can be understood in detail, a more particular description of the invention, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to the embodiments thereof which are illustrated in the appended drawings.
It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only typical embodiments of this invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the invention may admit to other equally effective embodiments.
FIG. 1 is a flow chart illustrating steps undertaken in depositing conductive layers according to one embodiment of the invention;
Embodiments of the invention described herein provide methods and apparatus for depositing a conductive material by an electroless process. One material that may be deposited is cobalt or cobalt alloys, which may be deposited as a passivation layer, a barrier layer, a seed layer, or used in the formation of a metal silicide layer.
The words and phrases used herein should be given their ordinary and customary meaning in the art by one skilled in the art unless otherwise further defined. Electroless deposition is broadly defined herein as deposition of a conductive material generally provided as charged ions in a bath over a catalytically active surface to deposit the conductive material by chemical reduction in the absence of an external electric current.
The processes described herein are performed in apparatus suitable for performing electroless deposition processes. Suitable apparatus include an Electra™ ECP processing platform or Link™ processing platform that are commercially available from Applied Materials, Inc., located in Santa Clara, Calif. The Electra Cu™ ECP platform, for example, includes an integrated processing chamber capable of depositing a conductive material by an electroless process, such as an electroless deposition processing (EDP) cell, which are commercially available from Applied Materials, Inc., located in Santa Clara, Calif. The Electra Cu™ ECP platform generally includes one or more electroless deposition processing (EDP) cells as well as one or more pre-deposition or post-deposition cell, such as spin-rinse-dry (SRD) cells, etch chambers, or annealing chambers. The Electra™ ECP processing platform is more fully described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,258,223, issued on July 10, which is incorporated by reference herein the extent not inconsistent with the claimed aspects and description herein. Embodiment of the Link™ processing platform are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/603,792, filed on Jun. 26, 2000, and in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/891,849, filed on Jun. 25, 2001, which are incorporated by reference herein the extent not inconsistent with the claimed aspects and description herein.