Soft landing nanolaminates for advanced patterning
AssigneeNovellus Systems, Inc.
InventorsFrank L. Pasquale, Shankar Swaminathan, Adrien LaVoie, Nader Shamma, Girish Dixit
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Abstract
Methods for depositing nanolaminate protective layers over a core layer to enable deposition of high quality conformal films over the core layer for use in advanced multiple patterning schemes are provided. In certain embodiments, the methods involve depositing a thin silicon oxide or titanium oxide film using plasma-based atomic layer deposition techniques with a low high frequency radio frequency (HFRF) plasma power, followed by depositing a conformal titanium oxide film or spacer with a high HFRF plasma power.
Claims18
A method of processing a semiconductor substrate, the method comprising:
- depositing a nanolaminate layer on the substrate;
- and
- depositing a titanium oxide layer on the nanolaminate layer, the nanolaminate layer having a thickness of between about 15 Å and about 200 Å and a density lower than the density of the titanium oxide layer.
A method of processing a semiconductor substrate, the method comprising:
- (a) exposing the substrate to a first titanium-containing precursor or a silicon-containing precursor;
- (b) exposing the substrate to a first oxidant;
- (c) initiating a first plasma while the substrate is exposed to the first oxidant with a HFRF power per square millimeter of substrate area between about 1.768×10−4 W per mm2 and about 1.768×10−3 W per mm2;
- (d) exposing the substrate to a second titanium-containing precursor;
- (e) exposing the substrate to a second oxidant;
- and
- (f) initiating a second plasma while the substrate is exposed to the second oxidant with a HFRF power per square millimeter of substrate area of at least about 1.768×10−3 W per mm2.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.