Plasma chamber with a multiphase rotating modulated cross-flow

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2022084794-A1
Application number	US-202017023186-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 16, 2020
Priority date	Sep 16, 2020
Publication date	Mar 17, 2022
Grant date	—

Abstract

Embodiments disclosed herein include a plasma treatment chamber, comprising one or more sidewalls. A support surface within the one or more sidewalls holds a workpiece. A first gas injector along the one or more sidewalls injects a first gas flow in a first direction generally parallel to and across a surface of the workpiece. A first pump port along the one or more sidewalls generally opposite of the first gas injector pumps out the first gas flow. A second gas injector along the one or more sidewalls injects a second gas flow in a second direction generally parallel to and across the surface of the workpiece. A second pump port along the one or more sidewalls generally opposite of the second gas injector pumps out the second gas flow.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A plasma treatment chamber, comprising:
one or more sidewalls; a support surface within the one or more sidewalls to hold a workpiece; a first gas injector along the one or more sidewalls to inject a first gas flow in a first direction generally parallel to and across a surface of the workpiece; a first pump port along the one or more sidewalls generally opposite of the first gas injector to pump out the first gas flow; a second gas injector along the one or more sidewalls to inject a second gas flow in a second direction generally parallel to and across the surface of the workpiece, the second direction different from the first direction; and a second pump port along the one or more sidewalls generally opposite of the second gas injector to pump out the second gas flow.

2 . The plasma treatment chamber of claim 1 , wherein the plasma treatment chamber is configured to use the first and second gas injectors and the first and second pump ports to rotate the first and second gas flows laterally across the workpiece from the one or more sidewalls to provide a multiphase rotating crossflow operation, the multiphase rotating crossflow operation comprising at least a 2-phase cycle.

3 . The plasma treatment chamber of claim 1 , wherein the first gas injector and the second gas injector are located in openings in the one or more sidewalls.

4 . The plasma treatment chamber of claim 1 , wherein locations of the first pump port and the second pump port are vertically offset from locations of the first gas injector and the second gas injector.

5 . The plasma treatment chamber of claim 1 , wherein the first gas flow and the second gas flow are switched on and off to control gas flow rotation.

6 . The plasma treatment chamber of claim 1 , further comprising a modulating function applied to a flow rate of at least one of the first and second gas flows or applied to an outlet conductance caused by at least one of the first and second pump ports.

7 . The plasma treatment chamber of claim 1 , wherein the plasma treatment chamber further comprises a third gas injector and an opposing third pump port to provide a third injector-pump port pair and a 3 -phase rotating crossflow operation.

8 . The plasma treatment chamber of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first gas injector and the second gas injector comprises a single vent in the one or more sidewalls.

9 . The plasma treatment chamber of claim 1 , wherein the first gas injector and the second gas injector comprises a gas injector array of individual gas injectors.

10 . A method of performing a rotating gas cross-flow in a plasma treatment chamber, the method comprising:
during a first phase, injecting, by a first gas injector, a first gas flow in a first direction generally parallel to and across a surface of a device, and pumping out, by a first pump port, the first gas flow from the plasma treatment chamber, wherein the first gas injector is along one or more sidewalls of the plasma treatment chamber at a first location, and the first pump port is along the one or more sidewalls at a second location generally opposing the first gas injector; and during a second phase, injecting, by a second gas injector, a second gas flow in a second direction generally parallel to and across the surface of the device, and pumping out, by a second pump port, the second gas flow from the plasma treatment chamber, wherein the second direction is different from the first direction, and wherein the second gas injector is along the one or more sidewalls at a third location, and the second pump port is along the one or more sidewalls at a fourth location generally opposing the second gas injector.

11 . The method of claim 10 further comprising querying a machine learning (ML) model to control timing of the first gas flow and the second gas flow.

12 . The method of claim 11 further comprising developing a semiconductor manufacturing process recipe for the device by:
selecting one or more device outcomes; and
querying the ML model to obtain a process recipe recommendation suitable for obtaining the device outcomes when processed by the plasma treatment chamber with the rotating gas cross-flow.

13 . The method of claim 12 further comprising executing a design of experiment (DoE) on a set of wafers to validate the process recipe recommended by the ML model.

14 . The method of claim 13 further comprising receiving as the process recipe any combination of: temperature, RF source power, bias power, gas pressure (mTorr), gas flow ramp open times (msec), gas flow time (msec), gas flow ramp closed and time (msec), gas flow fraction at various gas injectors, gas composition at various injectors, gas flow fraction going to various injectors, gas flow rotation frequency, gas flow composition frequency, gas flow rate/velocity (pressure gradient), gas flow direction, gas rotation phase, electron/plasma density, plasma density gradient, electron temperature, ion current density, plasma potential, sheath electric field potential, sheath electric field tilt angle, sheath electric field z-component, mass fraction atomic O, O flux, and Jion current density to workpiece.

15 . A plasma treatment chamber, comprising:
one or more sidewalls; a support within the one or more sidewalls to hold a workpiece; a first gas injector along the one or more sidewalls at a first location; a first pump port along the one or more sidewalls at a second location generally opposing the first gas injector; a second gas injector along the one or more sidewalls at a third location; a second pump port along the one or more sidewalls at a fourth location generally opposing the second gas injector; and a multiphase rotating cross-flow operation comprising at least:
a first phase comprising injecting, by the first gas injector, a first gas flow in a first direction generally parallel to and across a surface of the workpiece, and pumping out, by the first pump port, the first gas flow; and
a second phase comprising injecting, by the second gas injector, a second gas flow in a second direction generally parallel to and across the surface of the workpiece, and pumping out, by the second pump port, the second gas flow, wherein the second direction is different than the first direction.

16 . The plasma treatment chamber of claim 15 , further comprising a first gas inlet valve coupled to the first gas injector, a second gas inlet valve coupled to the second gas injector, a first pressure control valve coupled to the first pump port, and a second pressure control valve coupled to the second pump port.

17 . The plasma treatment chamber of claim 16 , further comprising a controller coupled to the plasma treatment chamber, the controller configured to:
during the first phase, start the first gas flow by fully opening the first gas inlet valve and partially opening the second gas inlet valve; and open the first pressure control valve and close the second pressure control valve.

18 . The plasma treatment chamber of claim 17 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
begin to close the first gas inlet valve near a transition between the first phase and the second phase, and rotate a direction of gas flow by fully opening the second gas inlet valve to begin the second phase and partially opening the first gas inlet valve; and open the second pressure control valve and close the first pressure control valve.

19 . A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon software ins

Assignees

• Applied Materials Inc

Inventors

• Collins Kenneth S
• Rice Michael R
• Carducci James D
• Ramaswamy Kartik
• Balakrishna Ajit
• Rauf Shahid
• Kenney Jason

Classifications

• H10P72/0421

  for drying etching · CPC title

• H10P72/0462

  characterised by the construction of the processing chambers, e.g. modular processing chambers · CPC title

• H01J37/32926

  Software, data control or modelling · CPC title

• H01J37/3244

  Gas supply means · CPC title

• C23C16/4412

  Details relating to the exhausts, e.g. pumps, filters, scrubbers, particle traps · CPC title