Nanolayer deposition using plasma treatment

Abstract

A process to deposit a thin film by chemical vapor deposition includes evacuating a chamber of gases; exposing a device to a gaseous first reactant, wherein the first reactant deposits on the device to form the thin film having a plurality of monolayers in thickness; evacuating the chamber of gases; exposing the device, coated with the first reactant, to a gaseous second reactant under a plasma treatment, wherein the thin film is treated by the first reactant; and repeating the previous steps.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 12 / 783,431, filed May 19, 2010, entitled: “NANOLAYER DEPOSITION USING BIAS POWER TREATMENT”, which is a Continuation-In-Part Patent Application of U.S. application Ser. No. 11 / 739,637 filed Apr. 24, 2007, entitled: “NANOLAYER THICK FILM PROCESSING SYSTEM”, which is a Divisional Patent Application of U.S. application Ser. No. 10 / 790,652 filed Mar. 1, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,235,484, issued Jun. 26, 2007, entitled: “NANOLAYER THICK FILM PROCESSING SYSTEM AND METHOD”, which is a Continuation of application Ser. No. 09 / 954,244 filed on Sep. 10, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,756,318, issued Jun. 29, 2004, entitled: “NANOLAYER THICK FILM PROCESSING SYSTEM AND METHOD”, all of which are incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to semiconductor thin film processing. The fabrication of modern semiconductor device structures has tradi...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0020]The precursors or gases in NLD process are not limited to only those having the self-limiting surface reactions since NLD is a deposition process. NLD thus is precursor-dependent and can be used to deposit a vast number of film materials from currently available precursors. Since NLD process has high throughput, the minimal volume constraint as in ALD process is not necessary, and conventional CVD chamber can be used to achieve highly conformal, high quality, high throughput films.

[0022]Yet other advantages may include one or more of the followings. The system attains highly efficient plasma operation in a compact substrate process module that can attain excellent characteristics for etching, depositing or sputtering of semiconductor wafers as represented by high etch rate, high uniformity, high selectivity, high anisotropy, and low damage. The system achieves high density and highly uniform plasma operation at low pressure for etching substrates and for deposition of films on to substrates. Additionally, the system is capable of operating with a wide variety of gases and combinations of gases, including highly reactive and corrosive gases.

Problems solved by technology

PVD is a line of sight deposition process that is more difficult to achieve conform film deposition over complex topography such as deposition of a thin and uniform liner or barrier layer over the small trench or via of 0.13 μm or less, especially with high aspect ratio greater than 4:1.

CVD typically requires high temperature for deposition which may not be compatible with other processes in the semiconductor process.

CVD at lower temperature tends to produce low quality films in term of uniformity and impurities.

This process is relatively time-consuming as a thick film is desired.

However, the conventional ALD method is slow in depositing films such as those around 100 angstroms in thickness.

The throughput in device fabrication for a conventional ALD system is slow.

Even if the chamber is designed with minimal volume, the throughput is still slow due to the large number of cycles required to achieve the thickness.

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