Radical-assisted sequential CVD
AssigneeGenus, Inc.
InventorOfer Sneh
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A new method for CVD deposition on a substrate is taught wherein radical species are used in alternate steps to depositions from a molecular precursor to treat the material deposited from the molecular precursor and to prepare the substrate surface with a reactive chemical in preparation for the next molecular precursor step. By repetitive cycles a composite integrated film is produced. In a preferred embodiment the depositions from the molecular precursor are metals, and the radicals in the alternate steps are used to remove ligands left from the metal precursor reactions, and to oxidize or nitridize the metal surface in subsequent layers. A variety of alternative chemistries are taught for different films, and hardware combinations to practice the invention are taught as well.
Claims35
A method for depositing a metal oxide on a substrate surface in a deposition chamber, comprising steps of:
- (a) depositing a monolayer of metal on the substrate surface by flowing a metal molecular precursor gas or vapor bearing the metal over a surface of the substrate, the surface saturated by a first reactive species with which the precursor will react by depositing the metal and forming reaction product, leaving a metal surface covered with ligands from the metal precursor and therefore not further reactive with the precursor;
- (b) terminating flow of the precursor gas or vapor;
- (c) purging the precursor with inert gas;
- (d) flowing a first radical species into the chamber and over the surface, the radical species highly reactive with the reaction product and combining with the reaction product to create volatile species and saturate the surface with the first radical species;
- (e) flowing radical oxygen into the chamber to combine with the metal monolayer deposited in step (a), forming an oxide of the metal;
- (f) flowing a third radical species into the chamber terminating the surface with the first reactive species in preparation for a next metal deposition step;
- and
- (g) repeating the steps in order until a composite film of desired thickness results.
A method for depositing a metal nitride on a substrate surface in a deposition chamber, comprising steps of:
- (a) depositing a monolayer of metal on the substrate surface by flowing a metal precursor gas or vapor bearing the metal over a surface of the substrate, the surface saturated by a first reactive species with which the precursor will react by depositing the metal and forming reaction product, leaving a metal surface covered with ligands from the metal precursor and therefore not further reactive with the precursor;
- (b) terminating flow of the precursor gas or vapor;
- (c) purging the precursor with inert gas;
- (d) flowing a first radical species into the chamber and over the surface, the radical species highly reactive with the surface ligands of the metal precursor layer and eliminating the ligands as reaction product and also saturating the surface;
- (e) flowing radical nitrogen into the chamber to combine with the metal monolayer deposited in step (a), forming a nitride of the metal;
- (f) flowing a third radical species into the chamber terminating the surface with the first reactive species in preparation for a next metal deposition step;
- and
- (g) repeating the steps in order until a composite film of desired thickness results.
A process for building a metal, metal oxide, or metal nitride film on a substrate surface, wherein deposition steps comprising flowing a metal precursor gas or vapor over the surface with the surface terminated with a hydroxyl species reactive with the metal precursor to deposit the metal, are alternated with steps comprising flowing atomic radical hydrogen, oxygen and hydrogen again, thereby volatilizing products remaining from the metal deposition chemistry, oxidizing the metal monolayer, then terminating the metal surface with hydroxyl species again in preparation for a next deposition reaction.
A method for depositing a compound film on a substrate surface in a deposition chamber, comprising steps of:
- (a) depositing a monolayer of metal on the substrate surface by flowing a metal molecular precursor gas or vapor bearing the metal over a surface of the substrate, the surface saturated by a first reactive species with which the precursor will react by depositing the metal and forming reaction product, leaving a metal surface covered with ligands from the metal precursor and therefore not further reactive with the precursor;
- (b) terminating flow of the precursor gas or vapor;
- (c) purging the precursor with inert gas;
- (d) flowing a first radical species into the chamber and over the surface, the radical species highly reactive with the reaction product and combining with the reaction product to create volatile species and saturate the surface with the first radical species;
- (e) flowing nonmetal radical species into the chamber to combine with the metal monolayer deposited in step (a), forming a compound film of the metal;
- (f) flowing a third radical species into the chamber terminating the surface with the first reactive species in preparation for a next metal deposition step;
- and
- (g) repeating the steps in order until a composite film of desired thickness results.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.