Apparatus and method for magnetron-enhanced plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsRobert Foster, David N. Wang, Sasson Somekh, Dan Maydan
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Abstract
A plasma CVD reactor and associated process use magnetic field enhancement to provide high quality, very high deposition rate metal, dielectric and conformal semiconductor films. The reacter and process are designed for automated, high-throughout, in-line small dimension VLSI integrated circuit fabrication, and are applicable to multistep in-situ processing.
Claims22
A gas chemistry method for depositing a selected film on a substrate from a reactant gas plasma, comprising providing a vacuum chemical vapor deposition chamber having an axis and including an electromagnet arrangement adapted for providing a uniform variable strength magnetic field throughout the chamber parallel to the cylinder axis;
- placing the substrate on a cathode within the vacuum chamber oriented parallel to said axis;
- applying RF energy to said chamber for forming a DC bias filed perpendicular to said axis;
- and forming a deposition reactant gas plasma within the chamber while applying said magnetic field substantially parallel to said axis and the substrate to form the film on the substrate.
A method for depositing a selected film on a substrate from a reactant gas plasma, comprising placing the substrate on a cathode within a vacuum processing chamber;
- applying RF energy to said chamber for forming a DC bias field perpendicular to said substrate;
- and forming a deposition reactant gas plasma within the chamber while applying a magnetic field substantially parallel to the substrate to form the film on the substrate, the magnetic field being variable for providng a high film deposition rate and low bombardment energy and associated low defect density.
A gas chemistry method of plasma vapor deposition, comprising providing a vacuum chemical vapor deposition chamber having an axis, providing a substrate support electrode in said vacuum chamber oriented and for orienting the substrate parallel to said axis, evacuating the chamber, introducing reactant deposition gas to the chamber, applying RF power to the chamber to form an electric DC bias field perpendicular to said axis to generate a plasma from the reactant gas adjacent the electrode surface, and applying a magnetic field to the chamber from an external source parallel to said axis to provide an electron-trapping field adjacent the electrode to establish a selected chemical reaction of the substrate surface with the reactant gas plasma, said reactant gases being provided to said chamber in an inlet pattern corresponding to the peripheral configuration of said substrate for sweeping the gas inwardly across said substrate and exhausting said gas through said inlet pattern.
A silicon nitride film formed from a magnetic field-enhanced reactant gas plasma on a supporting substrate structure, characterized by hydrogen film content of less than about 13%, a wet buffered hydrogen fluoride etch rate of less than about 100 Angstroms per minute, and film stress of about 1.times.10.sup.10 dyne/cm.sup.2.
A silicon oxynitride film formed from a magnetic field-enhanced reactant gas plasma on a supporting substrate structure, characterized by hydrogen film content of less than about 8%, a wet buffered hydrogen fluoride etch rate of less than about 400 Angstroms per minute and film stress of about 1.times.10.sup.10 dyne/cm.sup.2.
A silicon dioxide film formed from a magnetic field-enhanced reactant gas plasma on a supporting substrate structure, characterized by a wet buffered hydrogen fluoride etch rate of less than about 1,100 Angstroms per minute and film stress of about 5.times.10.sup.9 dyne/cm.sup.2.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.