Physical vapor deposition system and processes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11639544-B2
Application number	US-202016801631-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 26, 2020
Priority date	Mar 1, 2019
Publication date	May 2, 2023
Grant date	May 2, 2023

Abstract

A physical vapor deposition (PVD) chamber and a method of operation thereof are disclosed. Chambers and methods are described that provide a chamber comprising an upper shield with two holes that are positioned to permit alternate sputtering from two targets.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A physical vapor deposition (PVD) chamber comprising:
a plurality of cathode assemblies including a first cathode assembly including a first backing plate to support a first target comprising a first material during a sputtering process, a second cathode assembly including a second backing plate configured to support a second target comprising a second material different from the first material and adjacent a fourth target, a third cathode assembly including a third backing plate and a third target comprising a third material that is the same as the first material and a fourth cathode assembly including a backing plate and the fourth target comprising a fourth material that is the same as the third material and adjacent the first target and the second target; and
an upper shield below the plurality of cathode assemblies including a first shield hole having a diameter and positioned on the upper shield and with respect to the first and second cathode assemblies to expose the first target during a deposition process and a second shield hole having a diameter and positioned on the upper shield to expose the second target during a deposition process, the chamber including a controller configured to control rotation of the upper shield and to cause the chamber to alternately sputter the first material from the first target and the second material from the second target to form multiple layers of the first material and the second material without rotating the upper shield and to rotate the upper shield to conduct a pasting operation to paste material on an interior of the PVD chamber.

2. The PVD chamber according to claim 1 , wherein the upper shield is rotatable from a first position in which the first target and the second target are exposed during a deposition process, and the controller is configured to cause the PVD chamber to rotate the upper shield to a second position in which the third target and the fourth target are exposed for a pasting process in which material from the third target and the fourth target is pasted on the interior of the chamber while the first target and the second target are covered by the upper shield.

3. The PVD chamber of claim 2 , the upper shield having a flat inside surface, except for a region between the first shield hole and the second shield hole and a raised area in the region between the first shield hole and the second shield hole, the raised area having a height sufficient so that during a deposition process, the raised area prevents material sputtered from the first target from being deposited on the second target and to prevent material sputtered from the second target from being deposited on the first target.

4. The PVD chamber of claim 3 , wherein the height of the raised area is greater than one centimeter from the flat inside surface and having a length greater than the diameter of the first shield hole and the diameter of the second shield hole.

5. The PVD chamber of claim 4 , wherein the first cathode assembly comprises a first magnet spaced apart from the first backing plate at a first distance and the second cathode assembly comprises a second magnet spaced apart from the second backing plate at a second distance, wherein the first magnet and the second magnet are movable such that the first distance can be varied and the second distance can be varied.

6. The PVD chamber of claim 5 , wherein the first magnet and second magnet are configured to be moved to decrease the first distance and the second distance to increase magnetic field strength produced by the first magnet and the second magnet and to increase the first distance and the second distance to decrease magnetic field strength produced by the first magnet and the second magnet.

7. The PVD chamber of claim 2 , wherein the first target comprises a molybdenum target and the second target comprises a silicon target.

8. A method of depositing alternating material layers in a physical vapor deposition (PVD) chamber according to claim 1 comprising:
alternately sputtering material from the third target and the fourth target to deposit the third target material and the fourth target material on the interior of the PVD chamber.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein depositing material from the third target and the fourth target prevents defects deposited from the first target from contaminating the interior of the PVD chamber.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the upper shield further comprises a flat inside surface, except for a region between the first shield hole and the second shield hole.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the region between the first shield hole and the second shield hole includes a raised area having a length at least equal to the diameter of the first shield hole and the diameter of the second shield hole.

12. The method of claim 10 , further comprising rotating the upper shield so that the first shield hole is over the first target to expose the first target and the second shield hole is over the second target to expose the second target.

13. The method according to claim 12 , further comprising placing a substrate in the chamber and alternately sputtering material from the first target and the second target without rotating the upper shield, wherein the raised area prevents the first material from contaminating the second target and prevents the second material from contaminating the first target.

14. The method according to claim 13 , wherein the substrate comprises an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) mask blank.

15. The method according to claim 14 , wherein the first target material comprises molybdenum and the second target material comprises silicon.

16. The method according to claim 15 , further comprising depositing multiple alternating material layers comprising a first layer comprising molybdenum and a second layer comprising silicon.

17. A physical vapor deposition (PVD) chamber comprising:
a plurality of cathode assemblies including a first cathode assembly including a first backing plate supporting a first target comprising molybdenum and a second cathode assembly including a second backing plate supporting a second target comprising silicon and adjacent the a fourth target, a third cathode assembly including a third backing plate supporting a third target comprising molybdenum and adjacent the second target, and a fourth cathode assembly including a fourth backing plate supporting a fourth target comprising molybdenum and adjacent the first target and the second target;
an upper shield below the plurality of cathode assemblies having a first shield hole having a diameter and positioned on the upper shield to expose the first target and a second shield hole having a diameter and positioned on the upper shield to expose the second target when the upper shield is in a first position, the upper shield having a flat surface, except for a region between the first shield hole and the second shield hole, the upper shield positioned with respect to the first target and the second target and the PVD chamber including a controller configured to control rotation of the upper shield and to cause molybdenum and silicon material to be alternately sputtered from the first target and the second target respectively without rotating the upper shield; and
a raised area in the region between the first shield hole and the second shield hole, the raised area having a length greater than the diameter of the first shield hole and the diameter of the second shield hole, wherein the upper shield is rotatable and the controller is further configured to rotate the uppe

Assignees

• Applied Materials Inc

Inventors

• Bhat Sanjay
• Jindal Vibhu
• Xiao Wen

Classifications

• H10P14/6329

  using physical ablation of a target, e.g. physical vapour deposition or pulsed laser deposition · CPC title

• C23C14/352 Primary

  using more than one target (C23C14/56 takes precedence) · CPC title

• C23C14/165

  by cathodic sputtering · CPC title

• C23C14/35 Primary

  by application of a magnetic field, e.g. magnetron sputtering {(C23C14/3457 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• C23C14/3435

  Applying energy to the substrate during sputtering · CPC title