Remote plasma radical treatment of silicon oxide
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsCHRISTOPHER S. OLSEN, Yoshitaka Yokota
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Embodiments described herein generally relate to methods for manufacturing flash memory devices. In one embodiment, the method includes generating a plasma comprising nitrogen-containing radicals in a remote plasma applicator, flowing the plasma comprising nitrogen-containing radicals into a processing region of the processing chamber where a semiconductor device is disposed, wherein the semiconductor device has a substrate comprising an oxide layer formed thereon, exposing an exposed surface of the oxide layer to the nitrogen-containing radicals, and incorporating nitrogen in the exposed surface of the oxide layer of the substrate.
Claims22
A method for processing a semiconductor device in a processing chamber, comprising:
- generating a plasma comprising nitrogen-containing radicals in a remote plasma applicator;
- eliminating majority of the ions from the plasma before introducing the plasma comprising nitrogen-containing radicals into a processing region of the processing chamber where the semiconductor device is disposed, wherein the semiconductor device comprises a substrate having an oxide layer formed thereon, wherein eliminating majority of the ions from the plasma comprises flowing the plasma into a delivery member disposed in fluid communication with the processing region through an inlet port, the inlet port is formed in a sidewall of the processing chamber and a longitudinal axis of the delivery member is at an angle is about 20 degrees to about 80 degrees with respect to a longitudinal axis of the inlet port;
- exposing an exposed surface of the oxide layer to the nitrogen-containing radicals;
- and
- incorporating nitrogen in the exposed surface of the oxide layer of the substrate.
9-10. (canceled)
A method for processing a semiconductor device in a processing chamber, comprising:
- exciting a gas mixture comprising nitrogen-containing gas and/or a non-reactive gas in a remote plasma applicator to produce a plasma comprising nitrogen-containing radicals and/or radicals from the non-reactive gas;
- flowing the plasma comprising nitrogen-containing radicals and/or radicals from the non-reactive gas into a delivery member disposed in fluid communication with a substrate processing region of the processing chamber through an inlet port, the inlet port is formed in a sidewall of the processing chamber and a longitudinal axis of the delivery member is at an angle is about 20 degrees to about 80 degrees with respect to a longitudinal axis of the inlet port;
- and
- exposing an exposed surface of a layer formed on the semiconductor device to the plasma to incorporate nitrogen in the exposed surface of the layer.
(canceled)
A method for processing a semiconductor device in a processing chamber, comprising:
- flowing a plasma comprising nitrogen-containing radicals from a remote plasma applicator into a processing region of the processing chamber where the semiconductor device is disposed, wherein the nitrogen-containing radicals are flowed into a delivery member disposed in fluid communication with the processing region through an inlet port, the inlet port is formed in a sidewall of the processing chamber and a longitudinal axis of the delivery member is at an angle is about 20 degrees to about 80 degrees with respect to a longitudinal axis of the inlet port;
- and
- exposing a surface of the semiconductor device to the nitrogen-containing radicals.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.