Methods and apparatuses for showerhead backside parasitic plasma suppression in a secondary purge enabled ALD system

US9617638B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Lam Research Corporation · US

Inventors

• Adrien LaVoie · Newberg, US
• Hu Kang · Tualatin, US
• Purushottam Kumar · Hillsboro, US
• Shankar Swaminathan · Hillsboro, US
• Jun Qian · Sunnyvale, US
• Frank L. Pasquale · Beaverton, US
• Chloe Baldasseroni · Tigard, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jul 30, 2014
• Grant date: Apr 11, 2017
• Expiry date: Jul 30, 2034

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H01L21/0262
• WIPO field: Surface technology, coating
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

Disclosed are methods of depositing films of material on semiconductor substrates employing the use of a secondary purge. The methods may include flowing a film precursor into a processing chamber and adsorbing the film precursor onto a substrate in the processing chamber such that the precursor forms an adsorption-limited layer on the substrate. The methods may further include removing at least some unadsorbed film precursor from the volume surrounding the adsorbed precursor by purging the processing chamber with a primary purge gas, and thereafter reacting adsorbed film precursor while a secondary purge gas is flowed into the processing chamber, resulting in the formation of a film layer on the substrate. The secondary purge gas may include a chemical species having an ionization energy and/or a disassociation energy equal to or greater than that of O2. Also disclosed are apparatuses which implement the foregoing processes.