Selective atomic layer deposition with post-dose treatment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10679848-B2
Application number	US-201816034022-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 12, 2018
Priority date	Jul 1, 2016
Publication date	Jun 9, 2020
Grant date	Jun 9, 2020

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses for depositing films in high aspect ratio features and trenches using a post-dose treatment operation during atomic layer deposition are provided. Post-dose treatment operations are performed after adsorbing precursors onto the substrate to remove adsorbed precursors at the tops of features prior to converting the adsorbed precursors to a silicon-containing film. Post-dose treatments include exposure to non-oxidizing gas, exposure to non-oxidizing plasma, and exposure to ultraviolet radiation.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for processing substrates, the apparatus comprising:
(a) at least one process chamber including a pedestal for holding a substrate having one or more features;
(b) at least one outlet for coupling the at least one process chamber to a vacuum;
(c) one or more process gas inlets coupled to one or more silicon-containing precursor sources, one or more post-dose treatment gas sources, and one or more reactant gas sources;
(d) a radio-frequency (RF) generator; and
(e) a controller for controlling operations in the apparatus, wherein the controller is configured with machine-readable instructions for performing the following operations:
(i) introducing a silicon-containing precursor from at least one of the one or more silicon-containing precursor sources to the at least one process chamber under conditions allowing the silicon-containing precursor to adsorb onto the surface of the substrate, thereby forming an adsorbed layer of the silicon-containing precursor over the substrate;
(ii) prior to introducing a reactant from at least one of the one or more reactant gas sources to the at least one process chamber and after introducing the silicon-containing precursor, removing the adsorbed layer of the silicon-containing precursor under plasma conditions that remove the adsorbed layer preferentially at tops than at bottoms of the one or more features of the substrate by exposing the substrate during a post-dose treatment operation, wherein the post-dose treatment operation includes exposing the substrate to a first plasma generated from a gas selected from the group consisting of: nitrogen, argon, hydrogen, ammonia, helium, and C x H y , wherein x is an integer between and including 1-5 and y is an integer between and including 4-16, and
(iii) introducing the reactant and igniting a second plasma to form a silicon-containing film over the substrate.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the controller configured with machine-readable instructions for removing the adsorbed layer of the silicon-containing precursor preferentially at the tops than at the bottoms of the one or more features is further configured with machine-readable instructions for igniting the first plasma at a plasma power less than about 6 kW.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the controller configured with machine-readable instructions for removing the adsorbed layer of the silicon-containing precursor at the tops of the one or more features is further configured with machine-readable instructions for applying a bias at a bias power between 0 W and 1000 W.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the thickness of the silicon-containing film at the tops of the one or more features is less than the thickness of the silicon-containing film at bottoms of the one or more features.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the controller configured with machine-readable instructions for removing the adsorbed layer of the silicon-containing precursor is configured with machine-readable instructions for exposing the substrate to ultraviolet radiation at a wavelength between about 10 nm and about 400 nm.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the post-dose treatment operation is performed for a duration between about 0.1 seconds and about 10 seconds.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the post-dose treatment operation is performed at a pedestal temperature between about 25° C. and about 650° C.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the silicon-containing film is selected from the group consisting of silicon oxide, silicon nitride, and silicon carbide.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the one or more features have an aspect ratio of at least about 2:1.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the one or more features has a feature opening that is less than about 5000 nm wide.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured with machine-readable instructions for repeating operations (i)-(iii) for n cycles, where n is an integer greater than 2.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured with machine-readable instructions for purging the at least one process chamber in between operations (i) and (ii).

13. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured with machine-readable instructions for purging the at least one process chamber in between operations (ii) and (iii).

Assignees

• Lam Res Corp

Inventors

• Kumar Purushottam
• Lavoie Adrien
• Karim Ishtak
• Qian Jun
• Pasquale Frank L
• Van Schravendijk Bart J

Classifications

• C23C16/325

  Silicon carbide · CPC title

• H01J37/32449

  Gas control, e.g. control of the gas flow · CPC title

• H01J37/32357

  Generation remote from the workpiece, e.g. down-stream · CPC title

• H01L21/0217

  Electricity · mapped topic

• C23C16/402

  Silicon dioxide · CPC title