Soft landing nanolaminates for advanced patterning

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9390909-B2
Application number	US-201414194324-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 28, 2014
Priority date	Nov 7, 2013
Publication date	Jul 12, 2016
Grant date	Jul 12, 2016

Abstract

Methods for depositing nanolaminate protective layers over a core layer to enable deposition of high quality conformal films over the core layer for use in advanced multiple patterning schemes are provided. In certain embodiments, the methods involve depositing a thin silicon oxide or titanium oxide film using plasma-based atomic layer deposition techniques with a low high frequency radio frequency (HFRF) plasma power, followed by depositing a conformal titanium oxide film or spacer with a high HFRF plasma power.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of processing a semiconductor substrate, the method comprising:
depositing a nanolaminate layer on the substrate; and
depositing a titanium oxide layer on the nanolaminate layer, the nanolaminate layer having a thickness of between about 15 Å and about 200 Å and a density lower than the density of the titanium oxide layer.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising depositing an amorphous carbon layer, wherein the nanolaminate layer is deposited on the amorphous carbon layer.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the amorphous carbon layer is a patterned layer.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the nanolaminate layer comprises a stack comprising two or more sublayers.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the two or more sublayers each comprise silicon oxide, or titanium oxide, or combinations thereof.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the stack comprises no more than two sublayers.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the nanolaminate layer comprises a first sublayer of silicon oxide and a second sublayer of titanium oxide.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the nanolaminate layer comprises silicon oxide or titanium oxide.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the nanolaminate layer is deposited using plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) by:
exposing the substrate to a titanium-containing precursor or a silicon-containing precursor;
exposing the substrate to an oxidant; and
initiating a plasma while the substrate is exposed to the oxidant.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the nanolaminate layer is deposited at a temperature between about 50° C. and about 150° C. and the plasma is initiated at a high frequency radio frequency (HFRF) power per square millimeter of substrate area between about 1.768×10 −4 W per mm 2 and about 1.768×10 −3 W per mm 2 .

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the nanolaminate layer is deposited at a temperature less than about 100° C.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein the titanium-containing precursor comprises TDMAT.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the titanium oxide layer is deposited by PEALD by:
exposing the substrate to a titanium-containing precursor;
exposing the substrate to an oxidant; and
initiating a plasma while the substrate is exposed to the oxidant at a HFRF power per square millimeter of substrate area of at least about 1.768×10 −3 W per mm 2 .

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the oxidant comprises nitrous oxide or oxygen or carbon dioxide or a mixture thereof.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the titanium-containing precursor comprises TDMAT.

16. The method of claim 13 , wherein the titanium oxide layer is deposited at a pressure between about 3 Torr and about 3.5 Torr.

17. The method of claim 13 , wherein the titanium oxide layer is deposited at a temperature between about 50° C. and about 400° C.

18. A method of processing a semiconductor substrate, the method comprising:
(a) exposing the substrate to a first titanium-containing precursor or a silicon-containing precursor;
(b) exposing the substrate to a first oxidant;
(c) initiating a first plasma while the substrate is exposed to the first oxidant with a HFRF power per square millimeter of substrate area between about 1.768×10 −4 W per mm 2 and about 1.768×10 −3 W per mm 2 ;
(d) exposing the substrate to a second titanium-containing precursor;
(e) exposing the substrate to a second oxidant; and
(f) initiating a second plasma while the substrate is exposed to the second oxidant with a HFRF power per square millimeter of substrate area of at least about 1.768×10 −3 W per mm 2 .

Assignees

• Novellus Systems Inc

Inventors

• Pasquale Frank L
• Swaminathan Shankar
• Lavoie Adrien
• Shamma Nader
• Dixit Girish

Classifications

• H10P76/405

  characterised by their composition, e.g. multilayer masks · CPC title

• H10P76/204 Primary

  of organic photoresist masks · CPC title

• H10P74/203

  Structural properties, e.g. testing or measuring thicknesses, line widths, warpage, bond strengths or physical defects · CPC title

• H10P74/23

  characterised by multiple measurements, corrections, marking or sorting processes · CPC title

• H10P50/73

  using masks for insulating materials · CPC title