The present disclosure relates to a plasma doping apparatus, a plasma doping method, a semiconductor device manufacturing method and a semiconductor device.
When semiconductor devices, such as LSIs (Large Scale Integrated circuits), MOS (Metal Oxide Semiconductor) transistors and the like, are manufactured by performing a variety of processing such as doping, etching, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and sputtering on a semiconductor substrate (wafer), as a substrate to be processed.
One of techniques for injecting dopants into a substrate to be processed is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2010-519735 (Patent Document 1).
According to Patent Document 1, the doping is performed at a pressure in a processing container adjusted to fall within a range of 10 mTorr to 95 mTorr. When the doping is performed under such a relatively low pressure, it may be likely to have an adverse effect on the substrate to be processed, into which the dopants are to be injected, such as doing damage to the substrate. Specifically, for example, doping for the substrate to be processed to form a fin field effect transistor (FinFET) type semiconductor device having a three-dimensional (3D) structure may cause a shoulder drop state (or erosion) in which a so-called shoulder is cut away, which may result in damage to a physical shape. Therefore, there is a need for doping to make an adverse effect, such as damage to a substrate to be processed, as small as possible.
In addition, in a case where a doping object having a 3D structure, particularly such as a FinFET type semiconductor device, is subjected to doping, there is a need to equalize doping depths over the entire surface of a doping object when dopants are injected into the doping object. That is, there is a need for high doping conformality (uniformity).
According to an aspect, the present disclosure provides a plasma doping apparatus which performs doping by injecting dopants into a substrate to be processed. The apparatus includes a processing container in which dopants are injected into the substrate to be processed; a gas supplying unit configured to supply a doping gas and an inert gas for plasma excitation into the processing container; a holding table disposed in the processing container and configured to hold the substrate to be processed; a plasma generating mechanism configured to generate plasma in the processing container using a microwave; a pressure adjusting mechanism configured to adjust a pressure in the processing container; and a control unit configured to control the plasma doping apparatus. The control unit controls the pressure adjusting mechanism to set the pressure in the processing container to be equal to or more than 100 mTorr and less than 500 mTorr such that a plasma processing is performed on the substrate to be processed using the plasma generated by the plasma generating mechanism.
With this configuration, in the plasma doping, plasma is generated by the plasma generating mechanism using a microwave and the pressure in the processing container is set to be equal to or more than 100 mTorr and less than 500 mTorr such that the plasma processing is performed on the substrate to be processed. Accordingly, it is possible to subject a substrate to be processed, which is a doping object, to plasma doping which is capable of preventing damage to the substrate to be processed and providing high conformality for the substrate to be processed.
Further, the control unit may control the pressure adjusting mechanism to set the pressure in the processing container to be equal to or less than 450 mTorr.
Further, the control unit may control the pressure adjusting mechanism to set the pressure in the processing container to equal to or more than 150 mTorr and equal to less than 250 mTorr.
Further, after the plasma processing is performed on the substrate to be processed, the control unit may control the pressure in the processing container to be set to a pressure lower than the pressure set when the plasma processing is performed on the substrate to be processed such that another plasma processing is performed on the substrate to be processed using the generated plasma.
Further, the pressure lower than the pressure set when the plasma processing is performed on the substrate to be processed may be less than 100 mTorr.
Further, the doping gas may include at least one gas selected from a group consisting of B2H6, PH3, AsH3, GeH4, CH4, NH3, NF3, N2, HF, and SiH4.
Further, the inert gas for plasma excitation may include at least one gas selected from a group consisting of He, Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe.
Further, the plasma generating mechanism may be provided with a microwave generator configured to generate a microwave for plasma excitation, a dielectric window configured to transmit the microwave generated by the microwave generator through the processing container, and a slot antenna plate formed with a plurality of slot holes and configured to emit the microwave to the dielectric window.
Further, the plasma generated by the plasma generating mechanism is generated by a radial line slot antenna.
According to another aspect, the present disclosure provides a plasma doping method of performing doping by injecting dopants into a substrate to be processed. The method includes holding a substrate to be processed on a holding table disposed in a processing container; supplying a doping gas and an inert gas for plasma excitation into the processing container; generating plasma in the processing container using a microwave; and setting a pressure in the processing container to be equal to or more than 100 mTorr and less than 500 mTorr, thereby performing a plasma processing on the substrate to be processed.
Further, the pressure in the processing container may be set to be equal to or less than 450 mTorr, thereby performing the plasma processing on the substrate to be processed.
Further, the pressure in the processing container may be set to be equal to or more than 150 mTorr and equal to less than 250 mTorr, thereby performing the plasma processing on the substrate to be processed.
Further, after the plasma processing is performed on the substrate to be processed, the pressure in the processing container may be controlled to be set to a pressure lower than the pressure set when the plasma processing is performed on the substrate to be processed such that another plasma processing is performed on the substrate to be processed using the generated plasma.
Further, the pressure lower than the pressure set when the plasma processing is performed on the substrate to be processed may be less than 100 mTorr.
Further, the doping gas may include at least one selected gas from a group consisting of B2H6, PH3, AsH3, GeH4, CH4, NH3, NF3, N2, HF and SiH4.
Further, the inert gas for plasma excitation may include at least one gas selected from a group consisting of He, Ne, Ar, Kr and Xe.
Further, the plasma generated by the plasma generating mechanism may be generated by a radial line slot antenna.
According to still another aspect, the present disclosure provides a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device by injecting dopants into a substrate to be processed. The method includes holding a substrate to be processed on a holding table disposed in a processing container; supplying a doping gas and an inert gas for plasma excitation into the processing container; generating plasma in the processing container using a microwave; and setting a pressure in the processing container to be equal to or more than 100 mTorr and less than 500 mTorr, thereby performing a plasma processing on the substrate to be processed.
According to still yet another aspect, the present disclosure provides a semiconductor device manufactured by injecting dopants into a substrate to be processed. The semiconductor device is manufactured by a process including holding a substrate to be processed on a holding table disposed in a processing container; supplying a doping gas and an inert gas for plasma excitation into the processing container; generating plasma in the processing container using a microwave; and setting a pressure in the processing container to be equal to or more than 100 mTorr and less than 500 mTorr, thereby performing a plasma processing on the substrate to be processed.
According to further aspect, the present disclosure provides a semiconductor device having a normalized value of equal to or more than 0.1, which is obtained by normalizing a peak area of Si—H bond of a silicon 2p spectrum with a peak area of a silicon substrate.
According to further aspect, the present disclosure provides a plasma doping method of performing doping by injecting dopants into a substrate to be processed, including: holding a substrate to be processed on a holding table which is disposed in a processing container; supplying an arsenic (As)-containing doping gas and an inert gas for plasma excitation into the processing container; generating plasma in the processing container using a microwave; and setting a pressure in the processing container to be equal to or more than 100 mTorr and less than 500 mTorr and establishing a relationship of 5.0E+13 m−2·sec−1<flux F1 of As atoms supplied in a direction perpendicular to the substrate to be processed<1.0E+14 m−2·sec−1, thereby performing a plasma processing on the substrate to be processed.
Further, the plasma processing may be performed on the substrate to be processed by setting the pressure in the processing container to be equal to or more than 100 mTorr and less than 150 mTorr and establishing a relationship of 7.0E+13 m−2·sec−1<flux F1 of As atoms supplied in a direction perpendicular to the substrate to be processed<9.0E+13 m−2·sec−1.
Further, the plasma processing may be performed on the substrate to be processed by supplying hydrogen at a flow rate of equal to or more than 1 sccm and equal to or less than 2.5 sccm, assuming that the total flow rate of the doping gas and the inert gas for plasma excitation is 1000 sccm.
According to the present disclosure, plasma is generated by a plasma generating mechanism using a microwave and a pressure in a processing container is set to be equal to or more than 100 mTorr and less than 500 mTorr, thereby performing a plasma processing on a substrate to be processed. Accordingly, it is possible to subject a substrate to be processed serving as a doping object to plasma doping which is capable of preventing damage to the substrate to be processed and providing high conformality for the substrate to be processed.
Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. A configuration of a semiconductor device according to one exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure will first be described.
In addition, although not illustrated in
Referring to
The processing container 32 includes a bottom portion 41 located below the holding table 34 and a side wall 42 extending upward from the circumference of the bottom portion 41. The side wall 42 has substantially a cylindrical shape. The bottom portion 41 of the processing container 32 is formed with a penetrating exhaust hole 43. The upper side of the processing container 32 is opened and the processing container 32 is configured to be air-tightly sealed by a cover unit 44 disposed in the upper side of the processing container 32, a dielectric window 36 which will be described later, and an O-ring 45 serving as a seal member interposed between the dielectric window 36 and the cover unit 44.
The gas supplying unit 33 includes a first gas supplying part 46 which ejects a gas to the center of the substrate to be processed W, and a second gas supplying part 47 which ejects a gas from the outside of the substrate to be processed W. In the first gas supplying part 46, a gas supplying hole 30 for supplying the gas is formed in the center of the dielectric window 36 in the radial direction at a position retreated to the inside of the dielectric window 36 from the bottom 48 of the dielectric window 36 which faces the holding table 34. The first gas supplying part 46 supplies an inert gas for plasma excitation or a doping gas while regulating a flow rate or the like by means of a gas supplying system 49 connected to the first gas supplying part 46. The second gas supplying part 47 is formed by forming a plurality of gas supplying holes 50 for supplying an inert gas for plasma excitation or a doping gas into the processing container 32 in a portion of the upper side of the side wall 42. The plurality of gas supplying holes 50 is formed at the same intervals in the circumferential direction. The same kind of inert gas for plasma excitation or doping gas is supplied from the same gas source to the first gas supplying part 46 and the second gas supplying part 47. Depending on requirements, control contents, etc., separate gases may be supplied from the first gas supplying part 46 and the second gas supplying part 47 and may be regulated in terms of flow ratio and the like.
In the holding table 34, a high-frequency power supply 59 for RF (Radio Frequency) bias is electrically connected to an internal electrode of the holding table 34 via a matching unit 59. The high-frequency power supply 59 can output predetermined power (bias power) having a high frequency of, for example, 13.56 MHz. The matching unit 59 accommodates a matching device which takes matching between impedance of the high-frequency power supply 58 and impedance of loads such as mainly electrodes, plasma and the processing container 32 and contains a blocking capacitor for bias generation. In plasma doping, a bias voltage may or not be supplied to the holding table 34 as necessary.
The holding table 34 can hold the substrate to be processed W using an electrostatic chuck (not illustrated). In addition, the holding table 34 includes a heater (not illustrated) for heating so that the holding table 34 can be set to a desired temperature by means of a temperature adjusting mechanism 29 installed within the holding table 34. The holding table 34 is supported to an insulating tube-like supporter 51 extending upward from the bottom portion 41. The exhaust hole 43 is formed to penetrate through the bottom portion 41 of the processing container 32 along the circumference of the tube-like supporter 51. An exhauster (not illustrated) is connected to the lower side of the annular exhaust hole 43 via an exhaust pipe (not illustrated). The exhauster has a vacuum pump such as a turbo molecular pump or the like. The exhauster allows the pressure in the processing container 32 to be reduced to a predetermined pressure. The control unit 28 serves as a pressure adjusting mechanism which adjusts the pressure in the processing container 32 through exhaust control by the exhauster.
The plasma generating mechanism 39 includes a microwave generator 35 which is installed outside the processing container 32 and generates a microwave for plasma excitation. The plasma generating mechanism 39 also includes the dielectric window 36 which is placed to face the holding table 34 and introduce the microwave generated by the microwave generator 35 into the processing container 32. The plasma generating mechanism 39 also includes a slot antenna plate 37 which is formed with a plurality of slot holes 40 and is disposed above the dielectric window 36 and ejects a microwave to the dielectric window 36. The plasma generating mechanism 39 also includes a dielectric member 38 which is disposed above the slot antenna plate 37 and radially propagates a microwave introduced by a coaxial wave guide 56 (will be described later).
The microwave generator 35 with matching 53 is connected to the upper side of the coaxial wave guide 56 introducing the microwave, via a mode converter 54 and a wave guide 55. For example, a TE mode microwave generated in the microwave generator 35 passes through the wave guide 55, converted to a TEM mode by the mode converter 54 and propagates through the coaxial wave guide 56. A frequency of the microwave generated in the microwave generator 35 may be 2.45 GHz in this example.
The dielectric window 36 has substantially a disc shape and is made of dielectric. A portion of the bottom 48 of the dielectric window 36 is formed with an annular concave portion 57 tapered to facilitate generation of a standing wave by the introduced microwave. The concave portion 57 allows plasma by the microwave to be efficiently generated below the dielectric window 36. The dielectric window 36 may be made of, for example, quartz, alumina or the like.
The slot antenna plate 37 has a thin disc shape. For the plurality of slot holes 40, as illustrated in
The microwave generated by the microwave generator 35 is propagated to the dielectric member 38 through the coaxial wave guide 56. The microwave is radially spread inside the dielectric member 38 interposed between the slot antenna plate 37 and a cooling jacket 52 which contains a circulation path 60 for circulating a refrigerant or the like and adjusts temperature of the dielectric member 30 and so on, and is emitted from the plurality of slot holes 40 formed in the slot antenna plate 37 to the dielectric window 36. The microwave transmitting through the dielectric window 36 produces an electric field right below the dielectric window 36, thereby generating plasma in the processing container 32.
When the microwave plasma is generated in the plasma doping apparatus 31, a so-called plasma generation region having a plasma electron temperature is formed in a region located right below the bottom 48 of the dielectric window 36, particularly below the bottom 48 of the dielectric window 36 by about several centimeters. In addition, a so-called plasma diffusion region where the plasma generated in the plasma generation region is diffused is formed below the plasma generation region. The plasma diffusion region is a region having a relatively low plasma electron temperature in which plasma processing or plasma doping is performed. Thus, without doing so-called plasma damage to the substrate to be processed W in the plasma doping, it is possible to achieve efficient plasma doping, such as reducing doping time, due to high plasma electron density.
Next, a method of performing a plasma doping on the substrate to be processed W using the above-configured plasma doping apparatus will be described.
Referring to
Thus, the plasma doping is performed on the substrate to be processed W. In other words, the plasma doping apparatus according to one exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure is configured to include the control unit for controlling the pressure adjusting mechanism to set the pressure in the processing container to be equal to or more than 100 mTorr and less than 500 mTorr such that the plasma processing is performed on the substrate to be processed W using the plasma generated by the plasma generating mechanism.
With this configuration, plasma is generated by the plasma generating mechanism using a microwave and the pressure in the processing container is set to be equal to or more than 100 mTorr and less than 500 mTorr, thereby performing the plasma processing on the substrate to be processed. Accordingly, as a doping object, the substrate to be processed can be subjected to plasma doping with high conformality while preventing plasma damage.
Referring to
Doping is performed in such a manner to inject dopants into a surface of the fin 64, i.e., the upper wall 68 and both side walls 66 and 69 thereof, up to a predetermined doping depth. The same is true of the fin 65. In this case, to achieve conformal doping, the doping depth for the upper wall 68, the doping depth for an upper side of the side wall 66 and the doping depth for a lower side of the side wall 66 are equal to each other as possible. In
Referring to
The ratio R2 is about 0.4 when the pressure in the processing container is 100 mTorr. When the pressure in the processing container increases above 100 mTorr, the ratio R2 also increases and becomes about 0.6 between 200 mTorr and 500 mTorr.
When the pressure in the processing container is less than 100 mTorr, both of the ratios R1 and R2 tend to decrease, i.e., grow apart from 100 and 1, respectively, as illustrated in
Regarding the ratio R2, when the pressure in the processing container is less than 450 mTorr, the ratio R1 comes close to 100 and the ratio R2 approaches 1, resulting in relatively high values. When the pressure in the processing container is equal to or less than 150 mTorr and equal to or less than 250 mTorr, the ratios R1 and R2 can be securely close to 100 and 1, respectively.
Doping performed using an ion injection apparatus will now be described.
In contrast, referring to
As can be seen from the above description, according to the above-configured plasma doping apparatus and plasma doping method, it is possible to provide plasma doping with high conformality for a substrate to be processed, which is a doping object, while preventing damage (erosion) to the substrate.
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device according to one exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure involves manufacturing a semiconductor device by injecting dopants into a substrate to be processed. The semiconductor device manufacturing method includes steps of holding a substrate to be processed on a holding table disposed in a processing container, supplying a doping gas and an inert gas for plasma excitation into the processing container, generating plasma in the processing container using a microwave, and setting a pressure in the processing container to be equal to or more than 100 mTorr and less than 500 mTorr, thereby performing a plasma processing on the substrate to be processed.
A semiconductor device according to one exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure is manufactured by injecting dopants into a substrate to be processed. The semiconductor device is manufactured through steps of holding a substrate to be processed on a holding table disposed in a processing container, supplying a doping gas and an inert gas for plasma excitation into the processing container, generating plasma in the processing container using a microwave, and setting a pressure in the processing container to be equal to or more than 100 mTorr and less than 500 mTorr, thereby performing a plasma processing on the substrate to be processed.
Meanwhile, after the above-described plasma processing is performed on the substrate to be processed W, the pressure in the processing container may be controlled to be lower than the pressure set when the plasma processing is performed on the substrate to be processed such that another plasma processing is performed on the substrate to be processed using the generated plasma.
With this configuration, it is possible to suppress dopants injected by doping from being separated from the substrate to be processed W subjected to the first plasma processing. That is, it is possible to suppress dopants from being separated from the substrate to be processed W subjected to the doping due to elution of the dopants by a cleaning processing using chemicals performed after the doping.
In this connection, the amount of dose measured after a substrate to be processed which was not subjected to the second plasma processing with the pressure in the processing container set to a low pressure was carried out of the processing container was 1.78E+15 (atoms/cm2). The measurement was made by making analysis by SIMS (Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometer) and taking a profile of P (phosphorus) in the depth direction from a surface of a Si (silicon) substrate. Process conditions for plasma doping were as follows: microwave power: 3 kW, RF bias power: 450 W, flow rate of supplied mixture of PH3 and He with a percentage of PH3 in total set to 0.7%:28 sccm, flow rate of He gas: 972 sccm, doping time: 40 seconds, and the pressure in the processing container: 150 mTorr. The substrate to be processed which was not subjected to the second plasma processing was immersed in DHF (Diluted Hydrofluoric Acid having 0.5% concentration) for 20 seconds. The amount of dose measured again in the same manner thereafter was 1.65E+14 (atoms/cm2). That is, the amount of dose was reduced by about 90.7%.
In contrast, as illustrated in
The substrate to be processed which was subjected to the second plasma processing was immersed in DHF for 20 seconds, as in the case where the substrate to be processed was not subjected to the second plasma processing. The amount of dose measured again thereafter was 1.39E+15 (atoms/cm2). That is, the amount of dose was reduced by about 29.8%.
In this manner, after the plasma processing is performed on the substrate to be processed, the pressure in the processing container is controlled to be set to a pressure lower than the pressure set when the plasma processing is performed on the substrate to be processed such that another plasma processing is performed on the substrate to be processed using the generated plasma. This can result in prevention of separation of dopants injected by the doping. In addition, separation of the injected dopants in a cleaning processing may be prevented by annealing such as high temperature heat treatment. However, if annealing after the doping cannot be performed or annealing time is intended to be as short as possible depending on process conditions, the above-described configuration illustrated in
Referring to
Referring to
That is, a semiconductor device according to another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure may have a value of 0.1 or more obtained by normalizing the peak area of Si—H bond of the silicon 2p spectrum with the silicon substrate peak area.
Although it has been illustrated in the above exemplary embodiments that a PH3-containing gas is used as the doping gas, without being limited thereto, the doping gas may be at least one selected from a group consisting of B2H6, PH3, AsH3, GeH4, CH4, NH3, NF3, N2, HF and SiH4. That is, arsenic (As) or carbon (C) may be effectively used for doping.
In addition, although it has been illustrated in the above exemplary embodiments that He is used as the inert gas for plasma excitation, without being limited thereto, the inert gas may be at least one selected from a group consisting of He, Ne, Ar, Kr and Xe.
In addition, although it has been illustrated in the above exemplary embodiments that a FinFET type semiconductor device is used as the semiconductor device, without being limited thereto, the present disclosure may be applied to a MOS type semiconductor device.
Referring to
A gate electrode 88 serving as a conductive layer is formed on each gate oxide film 87 and a gate side wall 89 serving as an insulating film is formed on a side of the gate electrode 88. Further, an insulating film 91 is formed on the silicon substrate 82 on which the gate electrodes 88 and so on are formed. Contact holes 92 are formed in the insulating film 91, with the contact holes 92 connected to the high concentration n-type impurity diffusion regions 85a and the high concentration p-type impurity diffusion regions 85b, and hole filling electrodes 93 are formed in the contact holes 92. In addition, metal wiring layers 94 serving as conductive layers are formed thereon. Further, interlayer insulating films (not illustrated) serving as insulating layers and metal wiring layers serving as conductive layers are alternately formed and pads (not illustrated) serving as contact points with the outside are finally formed. Thus, the MOS type semiconductor device 81 is completed.
The MOS type semiconductor device 81 according to another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure is formed by subjecting the n-type impurity diffusion regions 86a and the p-type impurity diffusion regions 86b to doping using the above-described plasma doping apparatus. More specifically, for example, for the n-type impurity diffusion regions 86a, a B2H6 gas is used as a doping gas and boron (B) is injected as dopants. These regions 86a require extremely shallow junction, low junction breakdown voltage and low junction leak. Here, the plasma doping by the above-described configuration can reduce damage to the substrate to be processed and achieve high conformality.
Next, a case where arsenic (As) is injected as dopants for plasma doping performed using the above-described doping apparatus 31 will be described. In more detail for the configuration of the above-described plasma doping apparatus 31, the first gas supplying part 46 included in the plasma doping apparatus 31 is formed with one gas supplying hole 30, whereas the second gas supplying part 47 is formed with 24 gas supplying holes 50. The 24 gas supplying holes 50 are formed at the same intervals in the circumferential direction. In the specification, a gas supplied from the gas supplying hole 30 may be sometimes referred to as a center gas and a gas supplied from the plurality of gas supplying holes 50 may be sometimes referred to as an edge gas. It is here assumed that the center gas and the edge gas have the same gas composition.
After the doping, heat treatment such as lamp annealing is performed. Then, dopants injected into the silicon substrate are activated to decrease surface resistance of the silicon substrate, i.e., so-called sheet resistance of a substrate to be processed. Thus, electric characteristics of the silicon substrate are improved. On the other hand, the sheet resistance requires homogeneity, i.e., high in-plane uniformity, over the entire surface of the substrate to be processed.
Doping of arsenic (As) into the silicon substrate is now considered. When As is injected as dopants, for example, a AsH3-containing dopant gas is used. It is common that sheet resistance after annealing decreases with increase in the amount of dose injected by doping, i.e., the number of injected atoms. However, when As is used as dopants, the sheet resistance decreases with increase in As up to a certain amount, whereas it increases beyond the certain amount of As. Such inversion of the sheet resistance appears noticeably when As is used as dopants.
This will be described below in more detail.
In
Here, an AsH3/He mixture gas diluted with He is used as the doping gas. Specifically, a mixture gas having a flow ratio of AsH3/He=61/939 is diluted with He and is flown into the processing container 31 at a total of flow rate of 1000 sccm from the gas supplying unit 33. That is, the doping gas of 14 sccm means that it has a ratio of AsH3/He:He is 14 sccm:986 sccm.
Other process conditions for this case are as follows: microwave power: 3 kW, bias power: 450 W, the pressure in the processing container 32: 150 mTorr, processing time: 40 seconds, a flow ratio of center gas to edge gas: 20/80, and a distance from the bottom 48 of the dielectric window 36 to the top side of the holding table 34: 135 mm. In addition, lamp annealing after the doping is performed at 1050° C. for 120 seconds. Measurement on sheet resistance is made using a 4-probe measuring device.
First, referring to
This effect can be understood from
This effect may envisage the following aspects. Ar atoms are injected into a substrate to be processed, which is a doping object, for example, a silicon substrate, up to a predetermined amount of dose, and stay alone in the silicon substrate. Then, the Ar atoms are activated by later annealing, which results in contribution to reduction of sheet resistance. However, if the Ar atoms are injected over the predetermined amount dose, the injected Ar atoms are combined and clustered in the silicon substrate. A group of clustered Ar atoms will not be activated even by later annealing. As a result, it is believed that the inactivated group of Ar atoms has no contribution to reduction of sheet resistance but causes increase in the sheet resistance.
This effect is undesirable from the following aspects related to electric characteristics. The first aspect involves deteriorated in-plane uniformity of the substrate to be processed W. More specifically, as shown in the above example, the sheet resistances in the center and edge of the substrate to be processed W are significantly different from each other with increase in the flow rate of doping gas. The second aspect involves difficulty in setting of appropriate process conditions. For example, even when the flow rate of doping gas is increased to achieve increase in the amount of dose aimed at decrease in sheet resistance, there is a possibility of increase in the sheet resistance, as opposed to decrease in the sheet resistance.
From the viewpoint of securing good electric characteristics of a silicon substrate, obtained when As is injected as dopants, there is a need to supply an appropriate amount of doping gas with an aim at minimal sheet resistance. That is, there is a need to supply a doping gas to be injected into the silicon substrate by an appropriate amount of dose, not too much and not too little, with an aim at minimal sheet resistance obtained when As is injected as dopants. In addition, it is desirable to make in-plane uniformity of sheet resistance as high as possible.
Here, the following configuration is employed to provide good electric characteristics when As is injected as dopants. The present inventors have recognized the above-mentioned problems caused when As is injected as dopants and, as a result of careful study on these problems, have paid attention on a flux of As atoms having significant effect on the number of As atoms supplied for doping with these As atoms. As a result, the following relationship was found. If a relationship of 5.0E+13 m−2·sec−1<flux F1 of As atoms supplied in a direction perpendicular to a substrate to be processed<1.0E+14 m−2·sec−1 is established, this relationship has been found to result in good electric characteristics and high in-plane uniformity. In other words, it has been found that, when the supplied doping gas contains As atoms whose flux F1 lies between 5.0E+13 and 1.0E+14 per sec and square, As atoms as many as possible but not clustered can be injected as dopants, which can result in good electric characteristics and high in-plane uniformity.
That is, a plasma doping method according to another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure is a plasma doping method for performing doping by injecting dopants into a substrate to be processed. In the plasma doping method, a plasma doping is performed on the substrate to be processed by holding the substrate to be processed on the holding table disposed in the processing container, supplying an As-containing doping gas and an inert gas for plasma excitation into the processing container, generating plasma in the processing container using a microwave, and establishing a relationship of 5.0E+13 m−2·sec−1<flux F1 of As atoms supplied in a direction perpendicular to the substrate to be processed<1.0E+14 m−2·sec−1 with the pressure in the processing container set to be equal to or more than 100 mTorr and less than 500 mTorr.
Here, the lower limit 5.0E+13 m−2·sec−1 is calculated from a result obtained through two-dimensional plasma distribution simulation under process conditions capable of obtaining a required amount of dose (5E+15 atoms/cm2) or more. The upper limit 1.0E+14 m−2·sec−1 is calculated from a result obtained through two-dimensional plasma distribution simulation under process conditions capable of obtaining sufficiently low sheet resistance (300 Ω/cm2) without As atoms clustered.
In this case, supplied bias power is preferably set to a range of 250 W to 650 W.
When the pressure in the processing container 32 in the plasma doping is set to a range of 100 mTorr to 150 mTorr, a relationship of 7.0E+13 m−2·sec−1<flux F1 of As atoms supplied in a direction perpendicular to the substrate to be processed<9.0E+13 m−2·sec−1 is preferably established.
That is, the plasma processing may be performed on the substrate to be processed by establishing a relationship of 7.0E+13 m−2·sec−1<flux F1 of As atoms supplied in a direction perpendicular to the substrate to be processed<9.0E+13 m−2·sec−1 with the pressure in the processing container set to be equal to or more than 100 mTorr and less than 150 mTorr.
Referring to
When As is injected as dopants to achieve good electric characteristics and maintain high in-plane uniformity, a small amount of hydrogen may be added as a dilution gas.
In
Referring to
That is, when the total flow rate of doping gas and inert gas for plasma excitation is set to 1000 sccm, the plasma processing may be performed on the substrate to be processed by supplying a hydrogen gas with a flow rate of equal to or more than 1 sccm and equal to or less than 2.5 sccm.
Although it has been illustrated in the above exemplary embodiments that a silicon substrate is used as the substrate to be processed, the present disclosure is not limited thereto but may be well applied to doping in interlayer films.
In addition, although it has been illustrated in the above exemplary embodiments that the plasma processing is performed using a microwave generated by a radial line slot antenna including a slot antenna plate, the present disclosure is not limited thereto but may be applied to a plasma doping apparatus which generates plasma using a microwave generated by a comb-like antenna or a plasma doping apparatus which generates plasma using a microwave emitted from slots.
While the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure has been shown and described with reference to the drawings, the present disclosure is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. Rather, the disclosed embodiments may be changed and modified in different ways without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure defined in Claims and equivalents thereof.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2012-004959 | Jan 2012 | JP | national |
2012-220099 | Oct 2012 | JP | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/JP2012/077130 | 10/19/2012 | WO | 00 | 7/10/2014 |