Halogen resistant coatings and methods of making and using thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12497692-B2
Application number	US-202318122472-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 16, 2023
Priority date	May 3, 2018
Publication date	Dec 16, 2025
Grant date	Dec 16, 2025

Abstract

Described herein are articles, systems and methods where a halogen resistant coating is deposited onto a surface of a chamber component using an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process. The halogen resistant coating has an optional amorphous seed layer and a transition metal-containing layer. The halogen resistant coating uniformly covers features of the chamber component, such as those having an aspect ratio of about 3:1 to about 300:1.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method comprising:
depositing a halogen resistant coating on a surface of a portion of a chamber component using an atomic layer deposition process, comprising:
depositing a hydrogen seed layer onto the surface of the portion of the chamber component using the atomic layer deposition process, wherein the hydrogen seed layer is used as an adhesion layer;
depositing a transition metal-containing layer over the hydrogen seed layer using the atomic layer deposition process to a thickness of about 10 nm to about 1.5 μm, wherein the transition metal-containing layer comprises a material selected from a group consisting of tantalum, titanium, niobium, alloys thereof, alloys of tantalum or titanium with a rare earth metal, and combinations thereof,
wherein the halogen resistant coating conformally covers the surface.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein depositing the halogen resistant coating comprises maintaining a pedestal temperature of about 200° C. to about 400° C.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein depositing the hydrogen seed layer comprises depositing hydrogen radicals onto the surface.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein depositing the transition metal-containing layer comprises reacting the hydrogen seed layer with a precursor comprising a material selected from a group consisting of tantalum chloride, tantalum fluoride, tantalum bromide, tantalum iodide and tantalum oxide.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein depositing the transition metal-containing layer comprises reacting the hydrogen seed layer with a TaCl 5 precursor.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein depositing the halogen resistant coating further comprises forming an intermediate layer between the hydrogen seed layer and the transition metal-containing layer.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the intermediate layer comprises an interdiffused solid state phase.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the chamber component is selected from a group consisting of a chamber wall, a plasma generation unit, a shower head, a diffuser, a nozzle, gas distribution hub assembly and a gas line.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the portion is an interior surface of a gas line, or wherein the portion is a trough.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the portion is an interior of a gas line having an aspect ratio of length to diameter of about 3:1 to about 300:1, or wherein the portion is a trough having an aspect ratio of depth to width of about 3:1 to about 300:1.

11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the transition metal-containing layer further comprises a rare-earth metal selected from a group consisting of yttrium (Y), cerium (Ce), dysprosium (Dy), erbium (Er), europium (Eu), gadolinium (Gd), holmium (Ho), lanthanum (La), lutetium (Lu), neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr), promethium (Pm), samarium (Sm), scandium (Sc), terbium (Tb), thulium (Tm) and ytterbium (Yb).

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein depositing the transition metal-containing layer comprises depositing a transition metal by:
performing a deposition cycle comprising:
injecting a transition metal-containing precursor into a deposition chamber containing the chamber component to cause the transition metal-containing precursor to adsorb onto the chamber component to form a first half reaction; and
injecting a hydrogen-containing reactant into the deposition chamber to form a second half reaction; and
repeating the deposition cycle one or more times until a target thickness is achieved.

13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein depositing the transition metal-containing layer comprises alternating deposition of a transition metal and an additional metal to form a single phase or multi-phase layer by:
performing a deposition cycle comprising:
injecting a transition metal-containing precursor into a deposition chamber containing the chamber component to cause the transition metal-containing precursor to adsorb onto the chamber component to form a first half reaction;
injecting a hydrogen-containing reactant into the deposition chamber to form a second half reaction and a first layer;
injecting a metal-containing precursor into the deposition chamber to cause the metal-containing precursor to adsorb onto the chamber component to form a third half reaction; and
injecting the hydrogen-containing reactant into the deposition chamber to form a fourth half reaction and a second layer; and
repeating the deposition cycle one or more times until a target thickness is reached.

14 . A method comprising:
depositing a halogen resistant coating on an inside surface of a gas line or a surface of a trough using an atomic layer deposition process, comprising:
as a first step of the atomic layer deposition process, depositing a hydrogen seed layer on the surface using atomic layer deposition to a thickness of about 1 nm to about 1.5 μm; and
depositing a transition metal-containing layer on the hydrogen seed layer using the atomic layer deposition process to a thickness of about 10 nm to about 1.5 μm, wherein the transition metal-containing layer comprises a material selected from a group consisting of tantalum, titanium, niobium, alloys thereof, alloys of tantalum or titanium with a rare earth metal and combinations thereof,
wherein the gas line has an aspect ratio of length to diameter of about 3:1 to about 300:1 or the trough has an aspect ratio of depth to width of about 3:1 to about 300:1.

15 . The method of claim 14 , comprising maintaining a pedestal temperature of about 200° C. to about 400° C. during the atomic layer deposition process.

16 . A method comprising:
depositing a halogen resistant coating on a surface of a portion of a chamber component using an atomic layer deposition process, wherein the portion has an aspect ratio of length to diameter or depth to width of about 10:1 to about 300:1, comprising:
depositing hydrogen radicals onto the surface to form a hydrogen seed layer on the surface using atomic layer deposition to a thickness of about 1 nm to about 1.5 μm, wherein the hydrogen seed layer is used as an adhesion layer;
depositing a transition metal-containing layer on the hydrogen seed layer using the atomic layer deposition process to a thickness of about 10 nm to about 1.5 μm, wherein the transition metal-containing layer comprises a transition metal material selected from a group consisting of tantalum, titanium, niobium, alloys thereof, alloys of tantalum or titanium with a first rare-earth metal and combinations thereof; and
forming an intermediate layer between the hydrogen seed layer and the transition metal-containing layer, wherein the intermediate layer comprises an interdiffused solid state phase.

17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the chamber component is selected from the group consisting of a plasma generation unit, a shower head, a diffuser, a nozzle, gas distribution hub assembly and a gas line.

18 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the transition metal-containing layer comprises:
a stack of alternating layers of the transition metal material and a second rare-earth metal that is the same or different from the first rare-earth metal, wherein:
layers of the transition metal material in the stack of alternating layers each has a thickness of about 5-100 angstroms; and
layers of the second rare-earth metal in the stack of alternating layers each has a thickness of about 1-4 angstroms, wherein the layers of the rare earth metal prevent crystal formation in the layers of the transition metal material.

19 . The metho

Assignees

• Applied Materials Inc

Inventors

• Goradia Prerna
• Sun Jennifer Y
• Wu Xiaowei
• Bajaj Geetika
• Chaudhari Atul
• Kadam Ankur

Classifications

• C23C16/405

  of refractory metals or yttrium · CPC title

• C23C16/45544

  characterized by the apparatus · CPC title

• C23C16/277

  using other elements in the gas phase besides carbon and hydrogen; using other elements besides carbon, hydrogen and oxygen in case of use of combustion torches; using other elements besides carbon, hydrogen and inert gas in case of use of plasma jets · CPC title

• H01J37/32477 Primary

  characterised by the means for protecting vessels or internal parts, e.g. coatings · CPC title

• C23C16/45529

  specially adapted for making a layer stack of alternating different compositions or gradient compositions · CPC title