Ground state hydrogen radical sources for chemical vapor deposition of silicon-carbon-containing films
AssigneeLam Research Corporation
InventorsBhadri N. Varadarajan, Bo Gong
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Abstract
A thin layer of a silicon-carbon-containing film is deposited on a substrate by generating hydrogen radicals from hydrogen gas supplied to a radicals generation chamber, supplying the hydrogen radicals to a substrate processing chamber separate from the substrate processing chamber via a multiport gas distributor, and reacting the hydrogen radicals therein with an organosilicon reactant introduced into the substrate processing chamber concurrently. The hydrogen radicals are allowed to relax into a ground state in a radicals relaxation zone within the substrate processing chamber before reacting with the organosilicon reactant.
Claims20
A method for depositing a silicon-carbon-containing film on a substrate, the method comprising:
- providing a substrate in a processing chamber;
- introducing a flow of hydrogen gas into a plasma chamber that is separate from the processing chamber and fluidly coupled therewith via a gas distributor, the gas distributor having a plurality of through-holes;
- exciting at least a portion of the hydrogen gas within the plasma chamber to dissociate the hydrogen radicals and form excited hydrogen radicals;
- directing a flow of the excited hydrogen radicals through the gas distributor into a region adjacent to the gas distributor in an interior of the processing chamber;
- and
- directing a flow of an organosilicon reactant into a chemical vapor deposition zone, wherein the chemical vapor deposition zone is defined between the substrate and the region adjacent to the gas distributor, wherein substantially all of the excited hydrogen radicals transition into relaxed hydrogen radicals without recombining after flowing through the gas distributor and the region, at least some of the relaxed hydrogen radicals flowing from the region into the chemical vapor deposition zone concurrent with the flow of the organosilicon reactant and reacting therein with some of the organosilicon reactant, thereby depositing a silicon-carbon-containing film on the substrate.
A method for depositing a silicon-carbon-containing film on a substrate, the method comprising:
- supporting a substrate in a processing chamber;
- introducing a flow of a gas mixture of dilute hydrogen gas in helium gas into a plasma chamber that is separate from the processing chamber and fluidly coupled therewith via a gas distributor, the gas distributor having a plurality of through-holes;
- exciting at least a portion of the hydrogen gas within the plasma chamber to dissociate the hydrogen radicals and form excited hydrogen radicals in the gas mixture;
- directing a flow of the excited hydrogen radicals in the gas mixture through the gas distributor into a region adjacent to the gas distributor in an interior of the processing chamber;
- and
- directing a flow of an organosilicon reactant into a chemical vapor deposition zone, wherein the chemical vapor deposition zone is defined between the substrate and the region adjacent to the gas distributor, wherein substantially all of the excited hydrogen radicals transition into relaxed hydrogen radicals without recombining after flowing through the gas distributor and the region, at least some of the organosilicon reactant reacting with at least some relaxed hydrogen radicals flowing from the region concurrent with the flow of the organosilicon reactant, thereby depositing a silicon-carbon-containing film on the substrate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.