Deposition of tungsten nitride by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition

Abstract

A layer of tungsten nitride is deposited on the upper surface of a wafer. The deposition is performed by providing a gaseous mixture and providing energy to the gaseous mixture to form a plasma. The gaseous mixture includes a first gaseous composition containing tungsten and a second gaseous composition containing nitrogen and hydrogen. The second gaseous composition is one that does not have a gas phase reaction with the first gaseous composition to form tungsten nitride, unless energy is provided to the gaseous mixture. The first gaseous composition may be tungsten hexafluoride (WF6). The gaseous mixture may be infused with energy to form a plasma by providing it with energy from an rf signal. In the plasma, the nitrogen dissociates into nitrogen ions, and the tungsten separates from the fluorine. The nitrogen ions and tungsten then combine to form tungsten nitride (W2N), which deposits on the wafer's upper surface.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.