Selectively depositing silicon oxide on a dielectric surface of a substrate

A method for processing a substrate, the method comprising:

• exposing the substrate to a plasma comprising an inert gas to pre-treat the substrate;
• exposing the substrate to a silicon-containing inhibitor to selectively adsorb the silicon-containing inhibitor to a metal surface and a barrier layer surface of the substrate, the silicon-containing inhibitor comprising one or more organic moieties;
• and
• exposing the substrate to a metal-containing precursor to adsorb the metal-containing precursor to a dielectric surface of the substrate, wherein the silicon-containing inhibitor inhibits adsorption of the metal-containing precursor to the metal surface and the barrier layer surface.

A processing tool, comprising:

• a processing chamber;
• a substrate holder positioned within the processing chamber;
• a plasma generator;
• flow control hardware configured to control a flow of each of one or more processing chemicals into the processing chamber;
• and
• a controller configured to
• control the flow control hardware and the plasma generator to expose a substrate on the substrate holder to a plasma comprising an inert gas;
• control the flow control hardware to expose the substrate on the substrate holder to a silicon-containing inhibitor to selectively adsorb the silicon-containing inhibitor to a metal surface and a barrier layer surface of the substrate, and
• control the flow control hardware to expose the substrate to a metal-containing precursor to adsorb the metal-containing precursor to a dielectric surface of the substrate.