Patent Application
20240162003
This application claims priority to Taiwan Application Serial Number 111143106, filed Nov. 11, 2022, which is herein incorporated by reference.
The present invention relates to a passivation equipment and a passivation method for a semiconductor device. More particularly, the present invention relates to the passivation equipment and the passivation method for the semiconductor device by using plasma.
In a manufacturing process of a semiconductor device, a thin film deposition and a patterned etching process are common fabricating procedures in manufacturing a semiconductor component. However, in the aforementioned procedures, it is unavoidable to cause material defects, and the material defects are one of the important reason for affecting product yield and causing deterioration of electronic components. Against problems of the material defects, a passivation reaction is performed to improve property of the semiconductor component after the aforementioned fabricating procedures are completed in conventional process, which repair defects by introducing other elements to react and make bonds with defects in materials of semiconductor components.
Common conventional passivation reactions use furnace annealing process or plasma treatment at low temperature and low pressure. The furnace annealing process is performed by introducing hydrogen gas in a furnace with high temperature greater than 800° C., thereby performing annealing to the semiconductor components. However, due to limitation of thermal budget, the high-temperature furnace annealing cannot perform passivation repair for long time because of diffusion mechanism, or can destroy material of semiconductor components because of extremely high temperature. Moreover, most recent semiconductor components use dielectric material with high dielectric constant (high-k) as gate dielectric layer, and use metal gate electrode to replace traditional poly-Si material, that is, high-k metal gate (HKMG). Nevertheless, amounts of high-k dielectric material, such as hafnium oxide (HfO2), can crystallize after high-temperature (great than 600° C., for example) annealing treatment, thereby causing the gate dielectric layer occur leakage. In other words, after forming the HKMG structure, the high-temperature passivation treatment cannot be performed. Besides, the passivation method by using plasma at low temperature and low pressure is usually performed by using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), but the effect is not good, such that it can not further increase efficiency of the passivation reaction.
Based on above, it is needed to provide a passivation equipment and a passivation method for a semiconductor device to use high-pressure gas plasma and perform the passivation reaction for the semiconductor device efficiently.
An aspect of the present invention provides a passivation equipment for a semiconductor device, which ionizes a reaction gas at a pressure not smaller than 1 atm by a plasma producing unit to produce high-pressure plasma.
Another aspect of the present invention provides a passivation method for a semiconductor device, which uses the passivation equipment of the above aspect to perform repairing operation to at least a semiconductor device.
According to the aspect of the present invention, providing the passivation equipment for the semiconductor device. The passivation equipment includes a chamber housing and a splitter disposed inside the chamber housing. The splitter divides the chamber housing into a first chamber and a second chamber, and the second chamber is configured to accommodate at least a semiconductor device. The passivation equipment further includes a first intake tube connected to the first chamber, a plasma producing unit disposed in the first chamber, and a pressure detecting unit connected to the first chamber. The first intake tube is configured to insert a reacting gas. The pressure detecting unit is configured to detect a pressure of the first chamber, in which the pressure is not smaller than 1 atm.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the passivation equipment for the semiconductor device further includes a supporting unit disposed in the second chamber and a heating apparatus disposed in the second chamber and under the supporting unit. The supporting unit is configured to place the at least a semiconductor device. The heating apparatus is configured to heat the at least a semiconductor device.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the passivation equipment for the semiconductor device further includes a carrying component disposed in the second chamber and plural heating apparatus disposed out of the chamber housing. The carrying component is configured to transport and place the at least a semiconductor device. The plural heating apparatus are configured to heat the at least a semiconductor device.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the plasma producing unit uses a corona plasma source, and the plasma producing unit includes a high frequency pulse voltage source, a needle electrode and a plate electrode.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the plasma producing unit uses a corona plasma source, and the plasma producing unit includes a high frequency pulse voltage source, a pillar electrode and a ring electrode.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the plasma producing unit uses a dielectric barrier plasma source, and the plasma producing unit includes a high frequency pulse voltage source and two plate electrodes, in which at least one of the plate electrodes includes a dielectric barrier plate.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the passivation equipment for the semiconductor device further includes a second intake tube connected to the first chamber and/or the second chamber. The second intake tube is configured to insert an inert gas.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the passivation equipment for the semiconductor device further includes an exhaust pipe connected to the second chamber. The exhaust pipe is configured to exhaust the reacting gas.
According to the another aspect of the present invention, providing the passivation method for the semiconductor device. The passivation method includes providing a passivation equipment. The passivation equipment includes a chamber housing; a splitter disposed in the chamber housing, in which the splitter divides the chamber housing into a first chamber and a second chamber; a plasma producing unit disposed in the first chamber; a first intake tube connected to the first chamber; and a pressure detecting unit connected to the first chamber. The passivation method further includes placing at least a semiconductor device in the second chamber; inserting a reacting gas into the first chamber by the first intake tube to make a pressure of the first chamber not smaller than 1 atm; turning on the plasma producing unit to produce a high-pressure plasma; and performing a passivating operation, in which the passivating operation includes flowing the high-pressure plasma to the second chamber through the splitter and reacting with the at least a semiconductor device.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the reacting gas comprises one or more of hydrogen gas (H2), nitrogen gas (N2), amine gas (NH3), oxygen gas (O2), water, hydrogen sulfide (H2S), dinitrogen monoxide (N2O), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), phosphine (PH3), arsine (AsH3) and deuterium gas (D2).
According to an embodiment of the present invention, when inserting the reacting gas, the method further includes inserting an inert gas to the first chamber and/or the second chamber. The inert gas includes one or more of helium, neon, argon, krypton and xenon.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the passivation method further includes heating the at least a semiconductor device to 100° C. to 600° C. before turning on the plasma producing unit.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the pressure of the first chamber is 1 atm to 100 atm.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the pressure of the first chamber is greater than or equal to a pressure of the second chamber.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the passivation method further includes applying an AC voltage to the plasma producing unit before turning on the plasma producing unit, in which a frequency of the AC voltage is lower than 13.6 MHz.
According to the aspect of the present invention, providing a passivation equipment for a semiconductor device. The passivation equipment includes a chamber housing and a splitter disposed inside the chamber housing. The splitter divides the chamber housing into a first chamber and a second chamber. A pressure of the first chamber is greater than or equal to 1 atm, and the second chamber is configured to accommodate at least a semiconductor device. The passivation equipment further includes a first intake tube connected to the first chamber, a second intake tube connected to the first chamber and the second chamber, a plasma producing unit disposed in the first chamber, and an exhaust pipe connected to the second chamber. The first intake tube is configured to insert a reacting gas. The second intake tube is configured to insert an inert gas. The exhaust pipe is configured to exhaust the reacting gas.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the passivation equipment for the semiconductor device further includes a supporting unit disposed in the second chamber and a heating apparatus disposed in the second chamber and under the supporting unit. The supporting unit is configured to place the at least a semiconductor device. The heating apparatus is configured to heat the at least a semiconductor device.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the passivation equipment for the semiconductor device further includes a carrying component disposed in the second chamber and plural heating apparatus disposed out of the chamber housing. The carrying component is configured to transport and place the at least a semiconductor device. The plural heating apparatus are configured to heat the at least a semiconductor device.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the passivation equipment further includes a pressure detecting unit connected to the first chamber. The pressure detecting unit is configured to detect a pressure of the first chamber.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the plasma producing unit uses a dielectric barrier plasma source or a corona plasma source.
Application of the passivation equipment and the passivation method for the semiconductor device uses high-pressure plasma to increase a concentration of free radical for passivation of the semiconductor device and decrease temperature of repairing process. Therefore, efficiency of repairing and passivation for the semiconductor device can be increased.
Aspects of the present disclosure are best understood from the following detailed description when read with the accompanying figures. It is noted that, in accordance with the standard practice in the industry, various features are not drawn to scale. In fact, the dimensions of the various features can be arbitrarily increased or reduced for clarity of discussion.
The following disclosure provides many different embodiments, or examples, for implementing different features of the provided subject matter. Specific examples of components and arrangements are described below to simplify the present disclosure. These are, of course, merely examples and are not intended to be limiting. For example, the formation of a first feature over or on a second feature in the description that follows may include embodiments in which the first and second features are formed in direct contact, and may also include embodiments in which additional features may be formed between the first and second features, such that the first and second features may not be in direct contact. In addition, the present disclosure may repeat reference numerals and/or letters in the various examples. This repetition is for the purpose of simplicity and clarity and does not in itself dictate a relationship between the various embodiments and/or configurations discussed.
Further, spatially relative terms, such as “beneath,” “below,” “lower,” “above,” “upper” and the like, may be used herein for ease of description to describe one element or feature's relationship to another element(s) or feature(s) as illustrated in the figures. The spatially relative terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. The apparatus may be otherwise oriented (rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the spatially relative descriptors used herein may likewise be interpreted accordingly.
According to above, the present invention provides the passivation equipment and the passivation method for the semiconductor device, which uses reacting gases at high pressure and in greater concentration to produce high-pressure plasma, thereby increasing a concentration of free radicals for passivation of the semiconductor device. Therefore, repairing material defects of the semiconductor devices can be performed at lower temperature, and efficiency of passivation for the semiconductor device can be increased.
Referring to
The passivation equipment 100 includes a first intake tube 140 connected to the first chamber 112. The first intake tube 140 is configured to insert reacting gas into the first chamber 112. In some embodiments, the reacting gas includes one or more of hydrogen gas (H2), nitrogen gas (N2), amine gas (NH3), oxygen gas (O2), water, hydrogen sulfide (H2S), dinitrogen monoxide (N2O), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), phosphine (PH3), arsine (AsH3) and deuterium gas (D2).
The passivation equipment 100 further includes a plasma producing unit 130 and a pressure detecting unit 150 located in the first chamber 112. When the aforementioned reacting gas is inserted into the first chamber 112, the pressure detecting unit 150 can detect pressure of the first chamber 112. When the pressure reaches 1 atm or greater than 1 atm, the plasma producing unit 130 is turned on to produce plasma gas. Volume recombination of the plasma gas and the reacting gas occurs, and neutral free radicals are produced. The free radicals diffuse into the second chamber 114 through the splitter 120 such that the semiconductor device 102 is soaked in a high-pressure gas with the neutral free radicals, thereby occurring the passivation reaction. Generally, the free radicals have greater reactivity, so passivation effect can be increased. As such, charged ions or charges contacting with the semiconductor device can be avoided, thereby decreasing problems that the charged ions accumulate on surface of the semiconductor device to cause electrostatic damage. In some embodiments, the plasma producing unit 130 uses methods of corona discharge or dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) to produce plasma. In a high-pressure environment, an applied voltage with very high frequency is difficult to produce stable plasma. Therefore, it is preferred that the frequency of the AC voltage applied by a voltage source is lower than 13.56 MHz. Moreover, compared to the conventional plasma process equipment, the passivation equipment 100 of the present invention doesn't apply radio frequency (RF) voltage, thereby preventing ionized charges or ions from damaging the semiconductor device.
In some embodiments, the first chamber 112 has a predetermined pressure not smaller than 1 atm, about 1 atm to about 100 atm is preferable, and greater than 1 atm to about 100 atm is more preferable. Since solubility of gas in solid mainly depends on gas pressure and ambient temperature, according to Fick's law, when concentration of the gas is greater, amount of gas molecules diffused into the solid is more. As such, the passivation effect for dangling bonds or other defects of the semiconductor device is better.
In some embodiments, pressure of the second chamber is 1 atm to 100 atm. In some embodiments, the pressure of the first chamber 112 is greater than or equal to the pressure of the second chamber 114. Due to pressure difference between the first chamber 112 and the second chamber 114, the pressure difference can drive the free radicals produced by discharge ionization moving to the second chamber 114, and leading the free radicals collide with the semiconductor device 102 more efficiently.
In some embodiments, the passivation equipment 100 further includes a heating apparatus 160 and a supporting unit 170. The heating apparatus 160 and the supporting unit 170 are both disposed in the second chamber 114, in which the supporting unit 170 is configured to place the semiconductor device 102, while the heating apparatus 160 is disposed under the supporting unit 170 to heat the semiconductor device 102. In some embodiments, the semiconductor device 102 is laid flat on the supporting unit 170; thus, the semiconductor device 102 can have greater surface area near the heating apparatus 160. The conventional passivation reaction of the semiconductor device is performed at high temperature, such as greater than 600° C., but the passivation equipment 100 of the present invention can decrease the temperature of the passivation process by high pressure plasma and high reactivity of the free radical gas. In some embodiments, the heating apparatus 160 heat the semiconductor device to about 100° C. to about 600° C. Moreover, since the solubility of the gas in the solid material is influenced by temperature, the heating apparatus 160 is needed to heat the semiconductor device 102 homogeneously to ensure that various region of the semiconductor device 102 has consistent amount of the soluble gas. In some embodiments, a maximum temperature difference within the whole semiconductor device 102 is not greater than 5° C.
In some embodiments, the passivation equipment 100 can optionally include a second intake tube 145. In the embodiment shown in
In some embodiments, the passivation equipment 100 further includes an exhaust pipe 180 connected to the second chamber 114 to exhaust gases in the second chamber 114 when the pressure is too great or the passivation reaction ends. It is noted that compared to relative position of the first intake tube 140 and the plasma producing unit 130, the exhaust pipe 180 is disposed farther away from the plasma producing unit 130.
Referring to
The main difference between the passivation equipment 200 and the passivation equipment 100, the passivation equipment 200 further includes plural heating apparatus 260 and a carrying component 270. The carrying component 270 can be used to transport and place plural semiconductor devices 202. In some embodiments, the semiconductor devices 202 are upstanding and disposed in the carrying component 270 in parallel with each other; thus, more semiconductor devices 202 can be disposed in the carrying component 270. In some embodiments, the heating apparatus 260 is disposed outside the chamber housing 210, for example, under the second chamber 214; hence the heating apparatus 260 can heat plural semiconductor devices 202 homogeneously. In some embodiments, a maximum temperature difference between the plural semiconductor devices 202 and the carrying component 270 is not greater than 10° C. Since the plural semiconductor devices 202 can be disposed in the carrying component 270, the passivation reaction for the semiconductor devices 202 can be performed more efficiently.
In some embodiments, plasma producing methods of the plasma producing unit 130 (or the plasma producing unit 230) includes corona discharge or dielectric barrier discharge.
Referring to
Referring to
Subsequently, the passivation equipment 100 (or passivation equipment 200) can be used to perform the passivation for the semiconductor devices. The following discussion takes the passivation equipment 100 as an example. Referring again to
In some embodiments, when the reacting gas is inserted (or after inserting the reacting gas), the inert gas can be optionally inserted into the first chamber 112 and/or the second chamber 114 through the second intake tube 145, thereby decreasing process hazard and maintain the concentration of the free radical gases. In such embodiment, the inert gas includes one or more of helium, neon, argon, krypton and xenon.
In some embodiments, the heating apparatus 160 is then used to heat the semiconductor device 102 to heat the semiconductor device 102 to about 100° C. to 600° C. It is understood that the heating temperature can be modified according to different semiconductor device, but the heating temperature of the present invention is lower than the conventional temperature of performing repairing operation or the passivation reaction to various semiconductor devices.
Subsequently, the plasma producing unit 130 is turned on to perform discharge ionization reaction to the reacting gas in the first chamber 112, thereby producing the plasma gas. Then, the plasma gas flows into the second chamber 114 through the splitter 120, and performs the passivation reaction with the semiconductor device 102. After time for performing the passivation reaction reaches a predetermined treatment time, the plasma producing unit 130 is turned off, and the remaining gas in the second chamber 114 is exhausted through the exhaust pipe 180. In some embodiments, the predetermined treatment time is about 300 seconds to about 30 minutes. Compared to the conventional methods, which can consume about 1 hour to about 3 hours, the method of the present invention can shorten treatment time efficiently. Since the present invention uses the high-pressure plasma to perform repairing process for the semiconductor device, the concentration of the plasma gas is greater, efficiency of the passivation reaction is better, so the predetermined treatment time is shorter than that of the conventional method.
In some embodiments, before turning on the plasma producing unit 130, the voltage source (such as the high-frequency pulse voltage source 310) should apply an AC voltage to the plasma producing unit 130, and the frequency of the AC voltage is lower than 13.6 MHz.
The following embodiments are provided to better elucidate the practice of the present invention and should not be interpreted in anyway as to limit the scope of same. Those skilled in the art will recognize that various modifications can be made while not departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
Referring to
According to above embodiments, the present invention provides the passivation equipment and the passivation method for the semiconductor device, which uses the high-pressure plasma to increase the concentration of free radicals for passivation of the semiconductor device. Therefore, the temperature of repairing material defects of the semiconductor devices is decreased, and efficiency of repairing and passivation for the semiconductor device can be increased.
Although the present invention has been described in considerable detail with reference to certain embodiments thereof, other embodiments are possible. Therefore, the spirit and scope of the appended claims should not be limited to the description of the embodiments contained herein.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present invention cover modifications and variations of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the following claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 111143106 | Nov 2022 | TW | national |
