Metal deposition methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2020040448-A1
Application number	US-201916597526-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Oct 9, 2019
Priority date	Dec 19, 2015
Publication date	Feb 6, 2020
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method of forming conformal amorphous metal films is disclosed. A method of forming crystalline metal films with a predetermined orientation is also disclosed. An amorphous nucleation layer is formed on a substrate surface. An amorphous metal layer is formed from the nucleation layer by atomic substitution. A crystalline metal layer is deposited on the amorphous metal layer by atomic layer deposition.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method of forming an amorphous metal layer, the method comprising:
exposing a substrate surface of a substrate material to a nucleation precursor to form a conformal amorphous nucleation layer; and converting the conformal amorphous nucleation layer to a conformal amorphous metal layer by substituting atoms of the conformal amorphous nucleation layer with metal atoms from a metal precursor.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the substrate material consists essentially of a metal material.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the substrate material comprises a dielectric material.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the substrate material comprises aluminum oxide or titanium nitride.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the nucleation precursor comprises a silicon precursor.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the nucleation precursor comprises one or more silane, polysilane or halosilane.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the nucleation precursor comprises boron.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the nucleation precursor comprises one or more borane, alkylborane or haloborane.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the metal precursor comprises tungsten and the conformal amorphous metal layer comprises tungsten.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the metal precursor comprises one or more of WF 6 , WCl 6 , and WCl 5 .

11 . A method of forming a 110-oriented tungsten film, the method comprising:
exposing a surface of an amorphous substrate material to a nucleation precursor to form an amorphous nucleation layer; converting the amorphous nucleation layer to an amorphous tungsten layer by substituting atoms of the amorphous nucleation layer with tungsten atoms from a first tungsten precursor; and separately exposing the amorphous tungsten layer to a second tungsten precursor and a reactant to form a 110-oriented tungsten film.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the amorphous substrate material comprises aluminum oxide.

13 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the nucleation precursor comprises one or more of silicon and boron.

14 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the first tungsten precursor and the second tungsten precursor independently comprise one or more of WF 6 , WCl 6 , and WCl 5 .

15 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the reactant comprises hydrogen gas, nitrogen gas, or a nucleation promoter comprising silicon and/or boron.

16 . A method of forming a randomly oriented tungsten film, the method comprising:
exposing a surface of a crystalline substrate material to a nucleation precursor to form an amorphous nucleation layer; converting the amorphous nucleation layer to an amorphous tungsten layer by substituting atoms of the amorphous nucleation layer with tungsten atoms from a first tungsten precursor; and separately exposing the amorphous tungsten layer to a second tungsten precursor and a reactant to form a randomly oriented tungsten film.

17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the crystalline substrate material comprises titanium nitride.

18 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the nucleation precursor comprises one or more of silicon and boron.

19 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the first tungsten precursor and the second tungsten precursor independently comprise one or more of WF 6 , WCl 6 , and WCl 5 .

20 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the reactant comprises hydrogen gas, nitrogen gas, or a nucleation promoter comprising a silicon precursor and/or a boron precursor.

Assignees

• Applied Materials Inc

Inventors

• Wu Yong
• Gandikota Srinivas
• Mallick Abhijit Basu

Classifications

• H10P14/418

  the conductive layers comprising transition metals · CPC title

• C23C16/45525

  Atomic layer deposition [ALD] · CPC title

• C23C16/14 Primary

  Deposition of only one other metal element · CPC title

• C23C16/45553

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

• C23C16/0281

  of metallic sub-layers (C23C16/029 takes precedence) · CPC title