Ultrathin conformal coatings for electrostatic dissipation in semiconductor process tools

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12564012-B2
Application number	US-202418648278-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 26, 2024
Priority date	Sep 26, 2019
Publication date	Feb 24, 2026
Grant date	Feb 24, 2026

Abstract

A coated chamber component comprises a chamber component and a coating deposited on a surface of the chamber component, the coating comprising an electrically-dissipative material. The electrically-dissipative material is to provide a dissipative path from the coating to a ground. The coating is uniform, conformal, and has a thickness ranging from about 10 nm to about 900 nm.

First claim

We claim:

1 . A coated chamber component, comprising:
a chamber component; and a multi-layer coating deposited on a surface of the chamber component, the multi-layer coating comprising an electrically-dissipative material, wherein the electrically-dissipative material is to provide a dissipative path from the multi-layer coating to a ground, wherein the multi-layer coating is continuous on an entirety of the surface of the chamber component to protect the surface of the chamber component, wherein the multi-layer coating has a thickness ranging from about 10 nm to about 900 nm, and wherein the multi-layer coating comprises one or more first continuous material-containing layers on the entirety of the surface of the chamber component and one or more second continuous material-containing layers on the entirety of the surface of the chamber component.

2 . The coated chamber component of claim 1 , wherein the multi-layer coating has an electrical surface/sheet resistance ranging from about 1×10 5 ohm/sq to about 1×10 11 ohm/sq.

3 . The coated chamber component of claim 2 , wherein the electrical surface/sheet resistance of the multi-layer coating remains unchanged after thermal cycling at a temperature ranging from about 300° C. to about 700° C.

4 . The coated chamber component of claim 2 , wherein the electrical surface/sheet resistance of the multi-layer coating is uniform as evidenced by electrical surface/sheet resistance variations across the multi-layer coating of less than about ±35%.

5 . The coated chamber component of claim 1 , wherein the one or more first continuous material-containing layers consist of a metal or a metal alloy comprising at least one of Al, Y—Zr, Mg—Al, or Ca—Al, and the one or more second continuous material-containing layers consist of a transition metal, a rare earth, a main group metal, a semiconductor, or an alloy thereof.

6 . The coated chamber component of claim 1 , wherein the electrically-dissipative material comprises an alternating stack of the one or more first continuous material-containing layers and the one or more second continuous material-containing layers.

7 . The coated chamber component of claim 6 , wherein the one or more second continuous material-containing layers consist of one or more of Ti, Fe, Co, Cu, Ni, Mn, V, Y, Nb, In, Sn, Fe—Co, or La—Ta.

8 . The coated chamber component of claim 6 , wherein a ratio of a thickness of each first continuous material-containing layer to a thickness of each second continuous material-containing layer in the alternating stack ranges from about 10:1 to about 1:1.

9 . The coated chamber component of claim 6 , wherein the one or more first continuous material-containing layers comprise Al and the one or more second continuous material-containing layers comprise Ti.

10 . The coated chamber component of claim 1 , wherein the multi-layer coating has a thickness ranging from about 20 nm to about 500 nm.

11 . The coated chamber component of claim 1 , wherein the chamber component comprises an electrically-conductive material, a ceramic, a polymer, or quartz.

12 . The coated chamber component of claim 1 , wherein the multi-layer coating has a Vickers hardness ranging from about 500 kg/mm 2 to about 1000 kg/mm 2 .

13 . The coated chamber component of claim 1 , wherein the multi-layer coating is resistant to corrosive plasma.

14 . The coated chamber component of claim 1 , wherein the chamber component comprises a conductive material that is a metal.

15 . The coated chamber component of claim 1 , wherein the chamber component comprises a ceramic that is alumina.

16 . The coated chamber component of claim 1 , wherein the electrically-dissipative material comprises alumina, titania, or a combination thereof.

17 . The coated chamber component of claim 1 , wherein the multi-layer coating is also a corrosion resistant coating and protects the entirety of the surface of the chamber component from corrosion.

18 . A coated chamber component, comprising:
a chamber component; and a coating deposited on a surface of the chamber component, the coating comprising an electrically-dissipative material, wherein the electrically-dissipative material is to provide a dissipative path from the coating to a ground; wherein the coating comprises one or more first material-containing layers that comprise aluminum hydroxide and one or more second material-containing layers that comprise metallic titanium; and wherein the coating is uniform, conformal, and has a thickness ranging from about 10 nm to about 900 nm.

19 . A method comprising:
depositing a multi-layer coating onto a surface of a chamber component using an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process, a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, a plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) process, a metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) process, or a molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) process, the multi-layer coating comprising an electrically-dissipative material, wherein the electrically-dissipative material is to provide a dissipative path from the multi-layer coating to ground, wherein the multi-layer coating is continuous on an entirety of the surface of the chamber component to protect the surface of the chamber component, wherein the multi-layer coating comprises one or more first continuous material-containing layers on the entirety of the surface of the chamber component and one or more second continuous material-containing layers on the entirety of the surface of the chamber component, and wherein the multi-layer coating has a thickness ranging from about 10 nm to about 900 nm.

20 . The method of claim 19 , wherein the one or more first continuous material-containing layers consist of a metal or a metal alloy comprising at least one of Al, Y—Zr, Mg—Al, or Ca—Al, and the one or more second continuous material-containing layers consist of a transition metal, a rare earth, a main group metal, a semiconductor, or an alloy thereof.

Assignees

• Applied Materials Inc

Inventors

• Natu Gayatri
• Bajaj Geetika
• Goradia Prerna
• Thakare Darshan
• Fenwick David
• He Xiaoming
• Seppaelae Sanni
• Sun Jennifer
• Thanu Rajkumar
• Hudgens Jeff
• Muthukamatchy Karuppasamy
• Dhayalan Arun

Classifications

• H10P72/7602

  the wafers being placed on a robot blade or gripped by a gripper for conveyance · CPC title

• H05F1/02

  by surface treatment · CPC title

• H05F1/00

  Preventing the formation of electrostatic charges · CPC title

• H01J37/32477

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

• H05F3/02

  by means of earthing connections · CPC title