Methods for the reduction and elimination of particulate contamination with CVD of amorphous carbon
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsMartin Jay Seamons, Wendy H. Yeh, Sudha S. R. Rathi, Heraldo L. Botelho
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Abstract
A method is provided for forming an amorphous carbon layer, deposited on a dielectric material such as oxide, nitride, silicon carbide, carbon doped oxide, etc., or a metal layer such as tungsten, aluminum or poly-silicon. The method includes the use of chamber seasoning, variable thickness of seasoning film, wider spacing, variable process gas flows, post-deposition purge with inert gas, and post-deposition plasma purge, among others, to make the deposition of an amorphous carbon film at low deposition temperatures possible without any defects or particle contamination.
Claims18
A method for processing a substrate in a chamber, comprising:
- positioning a substrate inside the chamber;
- providing a gas mixture by flowing one or more hydrocarbon compounds and an inert gas to the deposition chamber;
- applying an electric field to the gas mixture and heating the gas mixture to decompose the one or more hydrocarbon compounds in the gas mixture and generate a plasma;
- depositing a material on the substrate for a deposition time;
- moving the substrate to a different distance from a gas distribution system of the chamber;
- and then
- terminating at least one gas flow of the one or more hydrocarbon compounds while still flowing the inert gas to the deposition chamber for a first time period, wherein any gas or plasma generated is pumped out of the chamber for a second time period, thereby reducing particle contamination on the substrate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.