Surface treatment of silicon or silicon germanium surfaces using organic radicals

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11062910-B2
Application number	US-201916444146-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 18, 2019
Priority date	Oct 3, 2017
Publication date	Jul 13, 2021
Grant date	Jul 13, 2021

Abstract

Processes for surface treatment of a workpiece are provided. In one example implementation, a method can include performing an organic radical based surface treatment process on a workpiece. The organic radical based surface treatment process can include generating one or more species in a first chamber. The surface treatment process can include mixing one or more hydrocarbon molecules with the species to create a mixture. The mixture can include one or more organic radicals. The surface treatment process can include exposing a semiconductor material on the workpiece to the mixture in a second chamber.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An organic radical based surface treatment process, the process comprising:
generating one or more species using a plasma induced in a first chamber;
filtering the one or more species generated by the plasma using a separation grid to create a filtered mixture;
mixing one or more hydrocarbon molecules with the filtered mixture at the separation grid to generate one or more organic radicals; and
exposing a workpiece to the organic radicals in a second chamber, the second chamber being separated from the first chamber by the separation grid.

2. The process of claim 1 , wherein the workpiece comprises silicon.

3. The process of claim 1 , wherein the workpiece comprises silicon germanium.

4. The process of claim 1 , wherein the one or more hydrocarbon molecules have a chemical formula of C n H 2n+2 , where n is greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to 10.

5. The process of claim 1 , wherein the one or more hydrocarbon molecules have a chemical formula of C n H 2n , where n is greater than or equal to 2 and n is less than or equal to 10.

6. The process of claim 1 , wherein the one or more organic radicals are generated by reaction of the one or more hydrocarbon molecules with the species.

7. The process of claim 1 , wherein the one or more organic radicals comprise a CH 3 radical.

8. The process of claim 1 , wherein the organic radical based surface treatment process results in methylation on at least a portion of the workpiece.

9. The process of claim 1 , wherein the one or more species are generated by the plasma induced in a process gas in the first chamber.

10. The process of claim 9 , wherein the process gas is an inert gas.

11. The process of claim 10 , wherein the inert gas is helium.

12. The process of claim 11 , wherein the process gas comprises a hydrogen gas and the species comprise hydrogen radicals.

13. The process of claim 1 , wherein the species comprise one or more hydrogen radicals generated using a heated filament.

14. The process of claim 1 , wherein the one or more organic radicals are generated using pyrolysis of molecules or UV-assisted molecule dissociation.

15. A method for processing a workpiece, comprising:
generating one or more species using a plasma;
filtering the one or more species generated by the plasma using a separation grid to create a filtered mixture;
exposing the workpiece to one or more organic radicals to modify a surface wetting angle of a silicon containing dielectric layer on the workpiece;
performing a wet process on the workpiece after exposing the workpiece to the one or more organic radicals;
wherein the one or more organic radicals are generated by mixing one or more hydrocarbon molecules with the filtered mixture.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the one or more hydrocarbon molecules have a chemical formula of C n H 2n+2 , where n is greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to 10.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the one or more hydrocarbon molecules have a chemical formula of C n H 2n , where n is greater than or equal to 2 and n is less than or equal to 10.

18. The method of claim 15 , wherein the one or more organic radicals comprise a CH 3 radical.

Assignees

• Mattson Tech Inc
• Beijing E Town Semiconductor Tech Co Ltd

Inventors

• Yang Michael X
• Chung Hua
• Lu Xinliang

Classifications

• H10P95/08

  Planarisation of organic insulating materials · CPC title

• H10P95/00

  Generic processes or apparatus for manufacture or treatments not covered by the other groups of this subclass · CPC title

• H10P76/20

  of masks comprising organic materials · CPC title

• H10P50/287

  by chemical means · CPC title

• H10P50/267

  using plasmas · CPC title