Gate stack materials for semiconductor applications for lithographic overlay improvement

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9490116-B2
Application number	US-201514879043-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 8, 2015
Priority date	Jan 9, 2015
Publication date	Nov 8, 2016
Grant date	Nov 8, 2016

Abstract

Embodiments of the disclosure provide methods and system for manufacturing film layers with minimum lithographic overlay errors on a semiconductor substrate. In one embodiment, a method for forming a film layer on a substrate includes supplying a deposition gas mixture including a silicon containing gas and a reacting gas onto a substrate disposed on a substrate support in a processing chamber, forming a plasma in the presence of the depositing gas mixture in the processing chamber, applying current to a plasma profile modulator disposed in the processing chamber while supplying the depositing gas mixture into the processing chamber, and rotating the substrate while depositing a film layer on the substrate.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for forming a film layer on a substrate comprising:
supplying a deposition gas mixture including a silicon containing gas and a reacting gas onto a substrate disposed on a substrate support in a processing chamber;
forming a plasma in the presence of the depositing gas mixture in the processing chamber;
applying current to a plasma profile modulator disposed in the processing chamber while supplying the depositing gas mixture into the processing chamber; and
rotating the substrate while depositing a film layer on the substrate.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein applying current to the plasma profile modulator further comprises:
applying current to an electrode disposed in a sidewall of the processing chamber.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein applying current to the plasma profile modulator further comprises:
applying current to an electrode disposed in the substrate support of the processing chamber.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reacting gas is selected from a group consisting of oxygen containing gas, a nitrogen containing gas and a carbon containing gas.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the nitrogen containing gas is selected from a group consisting of N 2 , N 2 O, NO 2 , NH 3 , and N 2 H 2 .

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein applying current to the plasma profile modulator further comprises:
applying current of between about 0.5 A and about 40 A to the processing chamber.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the film layer has a stress uniformity less than 50%.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein rotating the substrate further comprises:
rotating the substrate at a rotation speed between about 0 rpm and about 100 rpm.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein rotating the substrate further comprises:
rotating the substrate at between about 0 degrees and about 360 degrees around an axis of the substrate support.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the film layer is a silicon nitride layer.

11. A method for forming a film layer on a substrate comprising:
controlling a plasma generated from a gas mixture in a processing chamber by applying current to a plasma profile modulator disposed in the processing chamber; and
forming a film layer on a substrate with the controlled plasma, wherein the film layer has a local bow range less than 50 μm.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein controlling the plasma further comprises:
applying the current to an electrode disposed in a sidewall of the processing chamber.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein controlling the plasma further comprises:
applying the current to an electrode disposed in a substrate support disposed in the processing chamber.

14. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
rotating the substrate while forming the film layer on the substrate.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein the gas mixture includes a silicon containing gas and a nitrogen containing gas.

16. The method of claim 11 , wherein the film layer is a silicon nitride layer.

17. A film structure comprising:
a film stack includes a first film layer and a second film layer disposed on the first layer, wherein the first film layer and the second film layer are alternatively and repeatedly formed in the film stack with a total thickness between about 600 nm and about 4000 nm, wherein the film stack has a local bow range less than 200 μm.

18. The film structure of claim 17 , wherein the first film layer is a silicon oxide layer and the second film layer is a silicon nitride layer.

19. The film structure of claim 17 , wherein the film stack has about 5 to 90 pairs of alternating first film layers and the second film layers which is utilized to form 3D NAND gate structure for semiconductor devices.

20. The film structure of claim 17 , wherein the second film layer is formed by a plasma deposition process with a plasma distribution controlled by a plasma profile modulator disposed in a processing chamber.

Assignees

• Applied Materials Inc

Inventors

• Tsiang Michael
• Jha Praket P
• Han Xinhai
• Rajagopalan Nagarajan
• Kim Bok Hoen
• Kiyohara Tsutomu
• Sreekala Subbalakshmi

Classifications

• H10P14/69215

  the material being a silicon oxide, e.g. SiO2 · CPC title

• H10P14/6682

  the compound being a silane, e.g. disilane, methylsilane or chlorosilane · CPC title

• H10P14/6336 Primary

  in the presence of a plasma [PECVD] · CPC title

• H10P14/662

  Laminate layers, e.g. stacks of alternating high-k metal oxides (adhesion layers or buffer layers H10P14/6508, H10P14/6548) · CPC title

• H10P14/69433 Primary

  the material being a silicon nitride not containing oxygen, e.g. SixNy or SixByNz · CPC title