Methods for seamless gap filling of dielectric material

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11830728-B2
Application number	US-202117499955-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 13, 2021
Priority date	Oct 13, 2021
Publication date	Nov 28, 2023
Grant date	Nov 28, 2023

Abstract

A method for dielectric filling of a feature on a substrate yields a seamless dielectric fill with high-k for narrow features. In some embodiments, the method may include depositing a metal material into the feature to fill the feature from a bottom of the feature wherein the feature has an opening ranging from less than 20 nm to approximately 150 nm at an upper surface of the substrate and wherein depositing the metal material is performed using a high ionization physical vapor deposition (PVD) process to form a seamless metal gap fill and treating the seamless metal gap fill by oxidizing/nitridizing the metal material of the seamless metal gap fill with an oxidation/nitridation process to form dielectric material wherein the seamless metal gap fill is converted into a seamless dielectric gap fill with high-k dielectric material.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for dielectric filling of a feature on a substrate, comprising:
depositing a metal material into the feature and direct filling of the feature starting from a bottom of the feature, wherein the feature has an opening ranging from less than to approximately 150 nm at an upper surface of the substrate and wherein depositing the metal material is performed using a high metal ionization physical vapor deposition (PVD) process in a very high frequency RF based PVD chamber or a high ionization DC based PVD chamber to form a seamless metal gap fill; and
treating the seamless metal gap fill by oxidizing the metal material of the seamless metal gap fill with an oxidation process or by nitridizing the metal material with a nitridation process to form dielectric material, wherein the seamless metal gap fill is converted into a seamless dielectric gap fill with high-k dielectric material and wherein treating the seamless metal gap fill has a duration of approximately 200 seconds to approximately 300 seconds for a single cycle treatment at a first temperature and approximately 10 seconds to approximately 100 seconds for each cycle of a multi-cycle treatment at a second temperature lower than the first temperature.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
performing the oxidation process at a temperature of approximately room temperature to approximately 500 degrees Celsius.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
depositing the metal material at a pressure of approximately 50 mTorr to approximately 500 mTorr with the very high frequency RF based PVD chamber or at a pressure of approximately less than 5 mT with the high ionization DC based PVD chamber.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
depositing the metal material with the very high frequency RF based PVD chamber using an RF power frequency of approximately 40 MHz with an RF power of approximately 1000 watts to approximately 7000 watts; or
depositing the metal material with high ionization DC based PVD chamber using a source DC power of approximately 15 kW to approximately 60 kW with an RF bias power of approximately 75 watts to approximately 1500 watts.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the metal material is hafnium, aluminum, tantalum, or zirconium.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the oxidation process is a thermal oxidation process or a plasma-assisted oxidation process.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the thermal oxidation process is an ultraviolet (UV) plus ozone-based process or a UV plus oxygen-based process.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
performing the UV plus ozone-based process for approximately 200 seconds to approximately 300 seconds.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
performing the UV plus ozone-based process for approximately 240 seconds at a temperature of 485 degrees Celsius.

10. The method of claim 6 , wherein the plasma-assisted oxidation process is an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) oxygen plasma discharge-based oxidation process with a first process temperature or a capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) oxygen plasma discharge-based oxidation process with a second process temperature that is different from the first process temperature.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
performing the plasma-assisted oxidation process at a pressure of approximately 1 mTorr to approximately 30 mTorr and a power range from approximately 50 W to approximately 1000 W.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
depositing the metal material with high ionization DC based PVD chamber with a collimator and using a source DC power of approximately 15 kW to approximately 60 kW with an RF bias power of approximately 75 watts to approximately 1500 watts and a DC pulsed bias power applied to the collimator.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
repeating the method for at least two cycles until the feature is filled from the bottom to approximately the upper surface of the substrate or beyond.

14. A method for dielectric filling of a feature on a substrate, comprising:
depositing a metal material into the feature and direct filling of the feature starting from a bottom of the feature, wherein the feature has an opening ranging from less than to approximately 150 nm at an upper surface of the substrate and wherein depositing the metal material is performed using a high metal ionization physical vapor deposition (PVD) process to form a seamless metal gap fill in a very high frequency RF based PVD chamber using an RF power frequency of approximately 40 MHz with an RF power of approximately 1000 watts to approximately 7000 watts at a pressure of approximately 50 mTorr to approximately 500 mTorr or a high ionization DC based PVD chamber using a source DC power of approximately to approximately 60 kW with an RF bias power of approximately 75 watts to approximately 1500 watts at a pressure of approximately less than 5 mTorr; and
treating the seamless metal gap fill by oxidizing the metal material of the seamless metal gap fill with an oxidation process or by nitridizing the metal material with a nitridation process to form dielectric material, wherein the seamless metal gap fill is converted into a seamless dielectric gap fill with high-k dielectric material and wherein treating the seamless metal gap fill has a duration of approximately 200 seconds to approximately 300 seconds for a single cycle treatment at a first temperature and approximately 10 seconds to approximately 100 seconds for each cycle of a multi-cycle treatment at a second temperature lower than the first temperature.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the oxidation process is a thermal oxidation process or a plasma-assisted oxidation process.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the thermal oxidation process is an ultraviolet (UV) plus ozone-based process or a UV plus oxygen-based process.

17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising:
performing the UV plus ozone-based process for approximately 200 seconds to approximately 300 seconds.

18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising:
performing the UV plus ozone-based process for approximately 240 seconds at a temperature of 485 degrees Celsius.

19. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
performing the plasma-assisted oxidation process at a pressure of approximately 1 mTorr to approximately 30 mTorr and a power range of approximately 50 W to approximately 1000 W.

20. A non-transitory, computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause a method for dielectric filling of a feature on a substrate to be performed, the method comprising:
depositing a metal material into the feature and direct filling of the feature starting from a bottom of the feature, wherein the feature has an opening of less than 20 nm to approximately 150 nm at an upper surface of the substrate and wherein depositing the metal material is performed using a high metal ionization physical vapor deposition (PVD) process in a very high frequency RF based PVD chamber or a high ionization DC based PVD chamber to form a seamless metal gap fill; and
treating the seamless metal gap fill by oxidizing the metal material of the seamless metal gap fill with an oxidizing process to form dielectric material, wherein the seamless metal gap fill is converted into a seamless dielectric gap fill with high-k dielectric material and wherein treating the seamless metal gap fill has a duration of approximately 200 seconds to approximately 300 se

Assignees

• Applied Materials Inc

Inventors

• Liu Chengyu
• Xiong Ruitong
• Xie Bo
• Tang Xianmin
• Liu Yijun
• Xia Li-Qun

Classifications

• H10P14/6322

  Formation by thermal treatments (formation by plasma treatment H10P14/6319) · CPC title

• H10P14/6319

  Formation by plasma treatments, e.g. plasma oxidation of the substrate · CPC title

• H10P14/6316

  Formation by nitridation, e.g. nitridation of the substrate · CPC title

• H10P14/412

  Deposition of metallic or metal-silicide materials · CPC title

• H10W10/0142 Primary

  the dielectric materials being chemical transformed from non-dielectric materials · CPC title