Selective atomic layer deposition with post-dose treatment
AssigneeLam Research Corporation
InventorsPurushottam Kumar, Adrien LaVoie, Ishtak Karim, Jun Qian, Frank L. Pasquale, Bart J. van Schravendijk
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Abstract
Methods and apparatuses for depositing films in high aspect ratio features and trenches using a post-dose treatment operation during atomic layer deposition are provided. Post-dose treatment operations are performed after adsorbing precursors onto the substrate to remove adsorbed precursors at the tops of features prior to converting the adsorbed precursors to a silicon-containing film. Post-dose treatments include exposure to non-oxidizing gas, exposure to non-oxidizing plasma, and exposure to ultraviolet radiation.
Claims19
A method of processing a patterned substrate in a process chamber, the method comprising:
- (a) providing the patterned substrate having one or more features;
- (b) exposing the patterned substrate to a silicon-containing precursor under conditions allowing the silicon-containing precursor to adsorb onto surfaces of the one or more features, thereby forming an adsorbed layer of the silicon-containing precursor over the patterned substrate;
- (c) before exposing the patterned substrate to a reactant to form a silicon-containing film and after exposing the patterned substrate to the silicon-containing precursor, performing a post-dose treatment operation to preferentially remove the adsorbed layer at tops of the one or more features;
- and
- (d) exposing the patterned substrate to the reactant and igniting a first plasma to form the silicon-containing film over the patterned substrate.
A method of processing a patterned substrate, the method comprising:
- (a) providing a patterned substrate having one or more features;
- (b) exposing the substrate to a silicon-containing precursor under conditions allowing the silicon-containing precursor to adsorb onto surfaces of the one or more features, thereby forming an adsorbed layer of the silicon-containing precursor over the patterned substrate;
- (c) before exposing the patterned substrate to a reactant to form a silicon oxide film and after exposing the patterned substrate to the silicon-containing precursor, performing a post-dose treatment operation to preferentially remove the adsorbed layer at tops of the one or more features, and
- (d) exposing the patterned substrate to an oxygen-containing reactant and igniting a first plasma to form the silicon oxide film over the patterned substrate.
An apparatus for processing substrates, the apparatus comprising:
- (a) at least one process chamber including a pedestal for holding a substrate having one or more features;
- (b) at least one outlet for coupling the at least one process chamber to a vacuum;
- (c) one or more process gas inlets coupled to one or more silicon-containing precursor sources, one or more post-dose treatment gas sources, and one or more reactant gas sources;
- (d) a radio frequency (RF) generator;
- and
- (e) a controller for controlling operations in the apparatus, including machine-readable instructions for:
- (i) introducing a silicon-containing precursor from at least one of the one of the one or more silicon-containing precursor sources to the at least one process chamber under conditions allowing the silicon-containing precursor to adsorb onto the surface of the substrate, thereby forming an adsorbed layer of the silicon-containing precursor over the substrate;
- (ii) prior to introducing a reactant from at least one of the one or more reactant gas sources to the at least one process chamber and after introducing the silicon-containing precursor, performing a post-dose treatment operation to remove adsorbed silicon-containing precursor at tops of the one or more features of the substrate, and
- (iii) introducing the reactant and igniting a plasma to form a silicon-containing film over the substrate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.