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US 5,685,960 AGranted
Method for forming aluminum contacts
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsJianming Fu, Zheng Xu
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A process for making an aluminum contact comprising sputter depositing in a contact opening in a semiconductor substrate a first layer of titanium, forming a thin layer of titanium oxide thereover, sputter depositing a titanium nitride layer, smoothing the titanium nitride layer in an argon plasma, and sputter depositing an aluminum contact over the treated titanium nitride layer. The argon plasma treatment smooths the surface of the titanium nitride layer and improves the wettability between this layer and aluminum.
Claims3
A process for forming aluminum contacts which comprises the following sequential steps:
- a) sputter depositing a titanium layer onto a semiconductor substrate having a plurality of openings therein;
- b) forming an oxygen-containing titanium layer over the titanium layer;
- c) sputter depositing a titanium nitride layer over the oxygen-containing titanium layer;
- d) treating the surface of the titanium nitride layer with a plasma of argon to smooth said surface, all of the steps a) to d) being performed in the same sputtering chamber;
- and
- e) sputter depositing an aluminum layer over the plasma treated titanium nitride layer.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.