# US 2021/0280418 A1 · System and method for radical and thermal processing of substrates

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- Number: US 2021/0280418 A1
- Document ID: US20210280418A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 17/123,386
- Filed: 2020-12-16
- Published: 2021-09-09
- Earliest claimed: 2020-03-06
- Assignees: Applied Materials, Inc.
- Applicants: Applied Materials, Inc.
- Inventors: Xinming ZHANG; Abhilash J. MAYUR; Shashank SHARMA; Norman L. TAM; Matthew SPULLER; Zeqiong ZHAO
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20210280418A1

## CPC

- H10P 14/3802: {Crystallisation or recrystallisation of non-monocrystalline semiconductor materials, e.g. regrowth}
- H10B 41/27: the channels comprising vertical portions, e.g. U-shaped channels
- H10P 14/6308: {of Group IV semiconductors}
- H10P 14/6309: {of silicon in uncombined form, i.e. pure silicon}
- H10P 14/6319: {Formation by plasma treatments, e.g. plasma oxidation of the substrate}
- H10P 14/6322: {Formation by thermal treatments (formation by plasma treatment H10P14/6319)}
- H10P 72/0432: {mainly by conduction}
- H10P 72/7621: {characterised by supporting two or more semiconductor substrates}
- H10P 95/94: {Hydrogenation or deuterisation, e.g. using atomic hydrogen from a plasma}
- H10B 43/27: the channels comprising vertical portions, e.g. U-shaped channels
- H10P 14/3404: {being Group IVA materials}
- H10P 14/3411: {Silicon, silicon germanium or germanium}
- H10P 14/6532: {by exposure to a plasma}
- H10P 14/6539: {by exposure to corpuscular radiation, e.g. exposure to electrons, alpha-particles, protons or ions}
- H10P 14/69215: {the material being a silicon oxide, e.g. SiO2}
- H10P: GENERIC PROCESSES OR APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OR TREATMENT OF DEVICES COVERED BY CLASS H10
- H10B: ELECTRONIC MEMORY DEVICES

## Abstract

The present disclosure provides systems and methods for processing channel structures of substrates that include positioning the substrate in a first processing chamber having a first processing volume being in fluid communication with a plasma source. The substrate can include a channel structure with high aspect ratio features having aspect ratios greater than about 20:1. The method can also include forming an oxide cap layer over a silicon-containing layer of the channel structure and exposing the oxide cap layer to a hydrogen-or-deuterium radical to nucleate the silicon-containing layer of the channel structures of the substrate. Forming the oxide cap layer and exposing the channel structure with the hydrogen radical occurs in the first processing chamber to form a nucleated substrate. The method can also include positioning the nucleated substrate in a second processing chamber with a second processing volume and heating the nucleated substrate in the second processing chamber.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method of processing a substrate, comprising:
positioning the substrate in a first processing chamber comprising a first processing volume, the substrate comprising a channel structure with high aspect ratio features having aspect ratios greater than about 20:1;
exposing a silicon-containing layer of the channel structure to an oxygen plasma to form an oxide cap layer;
exposing the oxide cap layer of the channel structure to a hydrogen-or-deuterium plasma in the first processing volume; and
heating the substrate at a temperature of about 100° C. to about 1100° C. to form a nucleated substrate.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the hydrogen-or-deuterium plasma is formed from a hydrogen-or-deuterium containing gas in a remote plasma source.

### Claim 3 (depends on 2)

The method of claim 2, wherein:
the hydrogen-or-deuterium containing gas comprises a He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe, N2, or a combination thereof; and
a hydrogen-or-deuterium containing gas, H2, D2, NH3, or a combination thereof.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising positioning the nucleated substrate in a second processing chamber comprising a second processing volume; and
heating the nucleated substrate in the second processing chamber.

### Claim 5 (depends on 4)

The method of claim 4, wherein the nucleated substrate is heated at a temperature of about 400° C. to about 1100° C. for about 10 minutes to about 2 hours, at a pressure of about 1 Torr to about 3800 Torr.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, exposing the oxide cap layer to the hydrogen-or-deuterium plasma in the first processing volume comprises flowing the hydrogen-or-deuterium plasma into the first processing volume at a flow rate of about 10 sccm to about 5000 sccm.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the heating the substrate heating the substrate in the first processing volume occurs for about 1 minute to about 30 minutes, at a pressure of about 10 mTorr to about 530 Torr.

### Claim 8 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the hydrogen-or-deuterium plasma is formed using an inductively coupled plasma source.

### Claim 9 (depends on 1)

A system comprising an algorithm stored in a memory of the system, wherein the algorithm comprises a number of instructions which, when executed by a processor, causes the method of claim 1 to be performed.

### Claim 10

A method of making a memory device on a substrate comprising:
forming a channel structure in a film stack by etching a channel hole in the film stack and placing a channel layer at a bottom and in an inner surface of the channel hole, the channel structure in the film stack forming high aspect ratio features on the substrate, the high aspect ratio features having aspect ratios greater than about 20:1;
forming an oxide layer over the channel layer of the channel structure;
exposing the channel structure comprising the oxide layer with hydrogen radicals in a first processing volume of a first processing chamber; and
heating the high aspect ratio features at a temperature of about 100° C. to about 1100° C.

### Claim 11 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, wherein exposing the high aspect ratio features to hydrogen radicals and heating the high aspect ratio features comprises heating the high aspect ratio features in the first processing volume at a temperature of about 400° C. to about 1100° C. for about 1 minute to about 30 minutes.

### Claim 12 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, further comprising heating the high aspect ratio features at a temperature of about 400° C. to about 1100° C. in a second process volume.

### Claim 13 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, wherein the film stack is a 3D NAND film stack, and the channel layer is an amorphous or polycrystalline layer comprising from about 0 wt. % to about 100 wt. % of silicon and about 0 wt. % to about 100 wt. % of a group III, IV and V element.

### Claim 14 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, further comprising forming the film stack, wherein forming the film stack comprises depositing alternating oxide layers and nitride layers, or alternating oxide layers and polysilicon layers.

### Claim 15

A method of processing a substrate comprising:
forming a silicon-containing layer over a substrate;
forming an oxide cap layer over the silicon-containing layer by exposing the silicon-containing layer to an oxygen plasma;
exposing the oxide cap layer to hydrogen radicals;
heating the substrate at a first temperature of about 100° C. to about 1100° C. to form a nucleated silicon-containing layer of the substrate; and
heating the nucleated silicon-containing layer at a second temperature.

### Claim 16 (depends on 15)

The method of claim 15, wherein the oxide cap layer has a thickness of about 2 Å to about 30 Å.

### Claim 17 (depends on 15)

The method of claim 15, wherein after forming the oxide cap layer the substrate comprises a pre-treated film comprising the silicon-containing layer having a silicon-containing layer thickness and the oxide cap layer having an oxide cap layer thickness, wherein the oxide cap layer thickness is about 10% to about 50% of the silicon-containing layer thickness.

### Claim 18 (depends on 15)

The method of claim 15, wherein forming the oxide cap layer comprises positioning the substrate in a first processing volume of a first processing chamber and wherein exposing the oxide cap layer with the hydrogen radicals comprises dissociating hydrogen in the first process volume.

### Claim 19 (depends on 15)

The method of claim 15, wherein the substrate comprises high aspect ratio features having aspect ratios greater than about 20:1.

### Claim 20 (depends on 15)

The method of claim 15, wherein forming the oxide cap layer comprises flowing an oxygen plasma comprising the oxygen plasma into a first processing volume comprising the substrate at an oxygen plasma flow rate of about 0.05 SLM to about 10 SLM.