Method of cleaning a surface of a material layer
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsBingxi Sun, David M. Pung, Ashish Bodke, Nety M. Krishna
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Abstract
A method for removing a reducible contaminant, such as an oxide or organic material, from a surface of a material layer comprises contacting an exposed dielectric layer with one or more suppressant species. The exposed dielectric layer and the material layer are contacted with the reducing species. Contacting the exposed dielectric layer with the suppressant species suppresses reactions between the exposed dielectric layer and the reducing species. Contacting the dielectric layer with the suppressant species may prevent the reducing gas from increasing the dielectric constant of the dielectric layer.
Claims20
A method for removing contaminants from a substrate surface, comprising:
- generating a plasma of a cleaning gas in a remote plasma source, the cleaning gas comprising water alone or in a mixture with one or more gases selected from the group consisting of nitrogen, hydrazine, ammonia, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, helium, and argon;
- delivering radicals from the plasma of the cleaning gas to a process chamber that contains the substrate surface, wherein the substrate comprises copper;
- and
- removing contaminants from the copper surface.
A method for removing copper oxides from a substrate surface, comprising:
- generating a plasma of a cleaning gas in a remote plasma source, the cleaning gas comprising water alone or in a mixture with one or more gases selected from the group consisting of nitrogen, hydrazine, ammonia, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, helium, and argon;
- delivering radicals from the plasma of the cleaning gas to a process chamber that contains the substrate surface comprising copper oxides;
- and
- removing copper oxides from the substrate surface.
A method for forming features on a substrate surface, comprising:
- depositing a dielectric layer on a substrate surface;
- etching features in the dielectric layer to expose a copper sublayer;
- cleaning the features with radicals from a plasma of reactive gas, the reactive gas comprising water alone or in a mixture with one or more gases selected from the group consisting of nitrogen, hydrazine, ammonia, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, helium, and argon, wherein the plasma is generated by a remote plasma source and the radicals are delivered to a chamber which contains the substrate;
- depositing a barrier layer at least partially within the feature;
- cleaning the barrier layer with radicals from a plasma consisting of hydrogen, or a mixture of hydrogen, nitrogen, argon, and helium;
- and
- filling the features with copper.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.