Methods for depositing a titanium aluminum carbide film structure on a substrate and related semiconductor structures

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12518970-B2
Application number	US-202117395593-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 6, 2021
Priority date	Aug 11, 2020
Publication date	Jan 6, 2026
Grant date	Jan 6, 2026

Abstract

Methods for depositing a titanium aluminum carbide (TiAlC) film structure on a substrate are disclosed. The methods may include: depositing a first TiAlC film on a substrate utilizing a first cyclical deposition process, and depositing a second TiAlC film over the first TiAlC film utilizing a second cyclical deposition process. Semiconductor structures including titanium aluminum carbide (TiAlC) film structures deposited by the methods of the disclosure are also disclosed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for depositing a titanium aluminum carbide (TiAlC) film structure on a substrate, the method comprising:
depositing a first TiAlC film on the substrate utilizing at least one first unit deposition cycle of a first cyclical deposition process at a first growth rate per cycle under a first set of deposition parameters; and depositing a second TiAlC film directly over the first TiAlC film utilizing at least one second unit deposition cycle of a second cyclical deposition process at a second growth rate per cycle under a second set of deposition parameters; wherein at least one deposition parameter of the first set of deposition parameters differs from the second set of deposition parameters such that the first growth rate per cycle is greater than the second growth rate per cycle, and wherein the at least one deposition parameter is selected from the group consisting of deposition temperature, deposition pressure, precursor dose, precursor flow, precursor contacting time period with the substrate, and purge time period, wherein the at least one deposition parameter comprises deposition temperature, wherein a temperature during depositing the first TiAlC film is between 400° C. and 450° C., and wherein a temperature during depositing the second TiAlC film is less than 400° C., and wherein the first growth rate per cycle is between 6 Å/cycle and 9 Å/cycle, and wherein the second growth rate per cycle is between 2 Å/cycle and 5 Å/cycle.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first unit deposition cycle and the second unit deposition cycle comprise: contacting the substrate with a titanium precursor, and contacting the substrate with a metalorganic aluminum precursor.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the first cyclical deposition process utilizes a first metalorganic aluminum precursor as the metalorganic aluminum precursor and the second cyclical deposition process utilizes a second metalorganic aluminum precursor different from the first metalorganic aluminum precursor as the metalorganic aluminum precursor.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the first metalorganic aluminum precursor is more reactive than the second metalorganic aluminum precursor.

5 . The method of claim, 1 wherein the first TiAlC film has a greater atomic-% of aluminum than the second TiAlC film.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first TiAlC film has an atomic-% of aluminum between 20 atomic-% and 50 atomic-%.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the first TiAlC film has an atomic-% of aluminum between 30 atomic-% and 40 atomic-%.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the second TiAlC film has an atomic-% of aluminum less than 10 atomic-%.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first growth rate per cycle is between 6 Å/cycle and 9 Å/cycle, and wherein the second growth rate per cycle is between 2 Å/cycle and 5 Å/cycle.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one deposition parameter is purge time period.

11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one deposition parameter is selected from the group consisting of precursor dose, precursor flow, and precursor contacting time period with the substrate.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the second TiAlC film has an average film thickness of between 1 Angstrom to 20 Angstroms and the first TiAlC film has an average film thickness of between 1 Angstrom to 50 Angstroms.

13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a deposition surface of the substrate comprises a high-k dielectric material and the first TiAlC film is directly deposited over the high-k dielectric film.

14 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of depositing the first TiAlC film takes place in a first reaction chamber and wherein the step of depositing the second TiAlC film takes place in a second reaction chamber.

15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the temperature of the first reaction chamber differs from the temperature of the second reaction chamber.

16 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the titanium aluminum carbide (TiAlC) film structure has an average film thickness of between 20 Å and 50 Å.

17 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the first TiAlC film has an atomic-% of aluminum between 20 atomic-% and 50 atomic-%, and wherein the second TiAlC film has an atomic-% of aluminum between 1 atomic % and 20 atomic-%.

18 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the titanium aluminum carbide (TiAlC) film structure comprises at least a portion of a metal gate stack disposed on or over a semiconductor device structure.

19 . The method of claim 18 , wherein the semiconductor device structure comprises a gate all around (GAA) transistor.

20 . A gate electrode including a titanium aluminum carbide (TiAlC) film structure deposited according to the method of claim 1 .

21 . A semiconductor deposition apparatus configured to perform the method of claim 1 .

22 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a temperature during depositing the second TiAlC film is less than 350° C.

23 . A method for depositing a titanium aluminum carbide (TiAlC) film structure on a substrate, the method comprising:
depositing a first TiAlC film on the substrate utilizing at least one first unit deposition cycle of a first cyclical deposition process at a first growth rate per cycle, and depositing a second TiAlC film directly over the first TiAlC film utilizing at least one second unit deposition cycle of a second cyclical deposition process at a second growth rate per cycle; wherein at least one deposition parameter of the first set of deposition parameters differs from the second set of deposition parameters such that the first growth rate per cycle is greater than the second growth rate per cycle, wherein depositing the first TiAlC film comprises providing triethylaluminum (TEA), wherein the first growth rate per cycle is between 5 Å/cycle and 10 Å/cycle, and wherein depositing the second TiAlC film comprises providing trimethylaluminum (TMA), wherein the first growth rate per cycle is between 2 Å/cycle and 4 Å/cycle.

Assignees

• Asm Ip Holding Bv

Inventors

• Raisanen Petri
• Shero Eric
• Johnson Ward
• Li Dong

Classifications

• H10D64/01318 Primary

  the conductor comprising a layer of alloy material, compound material or organic material contacting the insulator, e.g. TiN (comprising a layer of alloys of Si, Ge or C H10D64/01314) · CPC title

• H10D64/667

  the conductor comprising a layer of alloy material, compound material or organic material contacting the insulator, e.g. TiN workfunction layers (having lateral variation H10D64/671) · CPC title

• H10D30/6739

  Conductor-insulator-semiconductor electrodes · CPC title

• C23C16/32 Primary

  Carbides · CPC title

• C23C16/45553

  characterized by the use of precursors specially adapted for ALD · CPC title