Reactor useful for chemical vapor deposition of titanium nitride

An apparatus for chemical vapor deposition, comprising:

• a reaction chamber including a showerhead faceplate for supplying processing gas through apertures in said faceplate;
• a generally circular pedestal included within said reaction chamber and having a support surface placeable below said faceplate for holding a substrate being coated, a recess being formed in an upper periphery of said pedestal;
• a thermally isolating ring assembly fitted into said recess and including
• an edge ring having a generally flat upper surface on a top of said assembly, and
• a heat shield disposed between said edge ring and said pedestal and having (1) a first cylindrical portion covering a cylindrical wall of said recess and shielding substantially all of said cylindrical wall from said edge ring and (2) a ring portion covering a bottom of said recess and sheilding substantially all of said bottom from said edge ring, gaps being formed between said edge ring and said heat shield and between said heat shield and said pedestal.

A processing chamber for forming films on a substrate, comprising:

• a chamber body having a chamber cavity extending from a top portion to a bottom portion thereof between walls of said chamber body;
• a pedestal movably disposed within said chamber cavity between said top and bottom portions;
• a chamber lid assembly supported by said chamber body adjacent said top portion and including an isolator ring member and a showerhead both supported by said isolator ring member, said isolator ring member, said isolator ring member having an isolator ring lip with a sloping surface facing said chamber cavity and extending downwardly and away from said showerhead and a generally planar surface positioned radially inside of said sloping surface, facing said chamber cavity, and lying approximately parallel to a face of said showerhead, an annular pumping channel being formed radially outside of said isolator ring lip;
• and
• a chamber insert assembly supported by said chamber body within said chamber cavity and having a shield member supported on said chamber body and including a shield body and a shield ridge protruding from said shield body towards said isolator ring lip and forming a choke aperture therebetween communicating said chamber cavity with said pumping channel.

An integral ceramic isolator configured to support a showerhead electrode on and electrically isolate said showerhead electrode from a chamber body in a plasma chemical vapor deposition reactor, said isolator and said showerhead electrode being generally symmetric about a vertical axis, said isolator comprising:

• a vertical portion extending vertically from an interior of said reactor at a bottom of said vertical portion toward an exterior of said reactor at a top of said vertical portion;
• a first horizontal portion extending radially outwardly from a top of said vertical portion;
• and
• a second horizontal portion extending radially inwardly from a bottom of said vertical portion and having a radially inwardly disposed planar bottom surface and a radially outwardly disposed sloping bottom surface sloping downwardly from said planar bottom surface.