Patent Application
20100317198
Various processes in semiconductor device manufacturing involve depositing a layer of a first composition over a layer of a second composition. In some situations, the surface of the underlying film may comprise impurities that can affect the adhesion of the two layers, as well as other mechanical and/or electrical properties of a semiconductor device. For example, in an example Damascene process flow, a metal is deposited onto a patterned dielectric layer to fill vias and trenches formed in the dielectric layer. Then, excess metal is removed via chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), thereby forming a planar surface comprising regions of exposed copper and low-k dielectric onto which other layers, such as a silicon carbide etch stop layer, are deposited.
Exposed copper regions may be subject to oxidation prior to the formation of subsequent layers. Similarly, hydrocarbon residues may remain on a wafer surface after a CMP process. The presence of copper oxide may cause problems with the adhesion of an etch stop film on the exposed copper portions of the wafer. Therefore, various cleaning processes may be used to remove such copper oxides. In one specific example, such a wafer may be exposed to a direct plasma in a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) processing chamber for a period of time prior to introducing chemical vapors to the processing chamber. The use of a reducing plasma, such as an ammonia or hydrogen plasma, may reduce copper oxide and hydrocarbons on the surface, thereby cleaning the surface. However, depending upon processing conditions, such direct plasmas also may affect a low-k dielectric surrounding the copper. Further, the use of an in situ plasma cleaning process step in a PECVD chamber may reduce overall PECVD system throughput.
Accordingly, various embodiments related to the cleaning of interface surfaces in a semiconductor wafer via remote plasma processing are disclosed herein. For example, in one disclosed embodiment, a semiconductor processing apparatus comprises a processing chamber, a load lock coupled to the processing chamber via a transfer port, a wafer pedestal disposed in the load lock and configured to support a wafer in the load lock, and a remote plasma source configured to provide a remote plasma to the load lock.
In another disclosed embodiment, a method of forming an interface between two layers of different material compositions comprises forming a layer of a first material composition on a substrate, positioning the substrate in a remote plasma processing apparatus, generating a remote plasma, flowing the remote plasma over a surface of the layer of the first material composition, and forming a layer of a second material composition on the surface of the layer of the first material composition to thereby form the interface between the two layers of different material compositions.
This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any or all disadvantages noted in any part of this disclosure.
Various embodiments are disclosed herein that are related to cleaning and/or otherwise processing interface surfaces in a semiconductor device with a remote plasma. As described in more detail below, in some embodiments, the use of a remote plasma may allow a surface to be cleaned of metal oxides, carbon compounds, and potentially other contaminants in an efficient and effective manner, and with fewer effects on other materials that are exposed to the plasma, such as a low-k dielectric material. Further, such a remote plasma also may be used in other settings, such as to remove hydrogen from a low-k material after deposition of the low-k material, to clean a tungsten surface before deposition of layers such as a hard mask layer, to clean a seed layer or barrier layer prior to a plating process, to create a surface with a desired chemical reactivity prior to an atomic layer (or other) deposition process, for pore sealing in ultra-low-k dielectrics, pre-processing of surfaces to be deposited with high-k dielectric, processing in conjunction with ultra-violet (UV) radiation curing, etc.
Prior to the discussion of the remote plasma processing of interface surfaces, an embodiment of an example semiconductor processing apparatus that comprises a load lock with a remote plasma source is described with reference to
The depicted processing chamber 114 comprises four stations, numbered from 1 to 4 in
Therefore, the use of a remote plasma to clean the Cu surfaces prior to etch stop deposition may allow copper oxides to be reduced without subjecting the wafer surface to the high energy ion impacts found in a direct plasma. A remote plasma treatment is primarily a chemical treatment, and helps to reduce effects associated with ion bombardment. Further, performing the remote plasma cleaning in the inbound load lock 102, rather than in the processing chamber 114, may provide for higher throughput, as the remote plasma cleaning process in the load lock may be performed in parallel with wafer processing at station 1. Any suitable reducing plasma may be used for such a cleaning process. Examples include, but are not limited to, N2, NH3, H2, and mixtures thereof.
Likewise, a CMP process may deposit intentionally or unintentionally various hydrocarbon compounds. Therefore, it is possible that some quantity of carbon may remain on a wafer surface after a CMP process. In this case, a remote plasma cleaning process may be used to clean the surface of such carbon residues. Any suitable plasma may be used for such a carbon removal process. Examples include, but are not limited to, the above-mentioned reducing plasmas, as well as an oxidizing plasma such as CO2, and mixtures thereof.
In some embodiments, the outbound load lock 104 may comprise a remote plasma source configured to treat a wafer surface with a remote plasma, either in addition to or instead of the remote plasma source at the inbound load lock 102. A remote plasma source may be used in the outbound load lock 104, for example, in a low-k dielectric deposition tool to remove hydrogen from a low-k film after deposition. Yet other applications for a remote plasma cleaning process include, but are not limited to, the cleaning of a tungsten surface prior to the deposition of a hard mask, such as an ashable hard mask, and the cleaning of a physical vapor deposition (PVD) copper film prior to a plating process, either via electroplating or electroless plating. It will be understood that these specific embodiments are presented for example, and are not intended to be limiting in any manner. Other metal surfaces that may be cleaned via a remote plasma process include, but are not limited to, nickel and nickel alloys, cobalt and cobalt alloys, tantalum and tantalum nitride, and metal silicides.
Further, it will be appreciated that, in some embodiments, station 1 of processing tool 100 may be configured to be a remote plasma cleaning station. In this case, additional wafer processing (e.g. PECVD) may be performed at stations 2-4 while remote plasma cleaning occurs at station 1. However, as described above, performing the remote plasma cleaning in the load lock, as well as wafer heating in the load lock, may allow stations 1-4 of processing tool 100 to be used for other processes in parallel with the remote plasma cleaning. In essence, the use of the remote plasma source with the load lock provides an additional processing station to the multi-station processing tool 100.
The load lock 200 further comprises an optional ion filter 204 configured to remove ions from the remote plasma flow to help prevent low-k degradation caused by ion bombardment. Ion filter 204 may be omitted for certain processes, for example where ion bombardment is not unacceptably detrimental to the quality of the process. In the depicted embodiment, the ion filter 204 takes the form of a porous plate disposed at an outlet of the remote plasma source 202. The plate comprises a plurality of through holes configured to direct a remote plasma flow onto a wafer positioned on the pedestal in the load lock chamber 206 in a direction normal to the wafer surface. The ion filter 204 is discussed in more detail with reference to
The remote plasma source 202 further comprises a wall 304 surrounded by an inductive coil 306. In the depicted embodiment, the wall 304 takes the form of a bell-shaped vessel, but it will be understood that the wall 304 may have any other suitable configuration. Likewise, the wall 304 may be made of any suitable material. Examples of suitable materials include, but are not limited to, quartz.
The wall 304 comprises a generally circular opening that forms an outlet 308 of the remote plasma source 202. The outlet 308 may have any suitable size relative to a wafer intended for use in the load lock. For example, in some embodiments, the outlet 308 has a diameter that is equal to or greater than a diameter of a wafer for which the load lock 200 is intended for use. This may help to ensure that the entire wafer surface encounters a substantially uniform incident flux of remote plasma. In other embodiments, the outlet 308 may have a diameter that is suitably smaller than the diameter of the wafer, such that any uneven processing caused by an unequal remote plasma flux on the wafer surface does not result in a surface outside of acceptable tolerances.
Continuing with
As mentioned above, the through-holes 310 of the depicted embodiment are oriented to have a direction of flow normal to a wafer-supporting surface of the wafer pedestal 314, and therefore normal to a wafer positioned on the pedestal surface. However, the through-holes 310 may have any other suitable configuration than that shown. Further, the through-holes 310 may have any suitable dimensions relative to the thickness of the ion filter plate. The relative size and length of the through-holes may affect an ion flux transmission through the filter.
The ion filter 204 may be made from any suitable material. Suitable materials may include, but are not limited to, thermally insulating materials such as quartz, as well as thermally conductive materials such as aluminum and other metals. The use of a thermally conductive material for the ion filter 204 may allow the ion filter to be cooled by conducting heat to a thermally conductive outer wall of the load lock 200 and/or remote plasma source 202. It will be understood that the ion filter may be spaced any suitable distance from a surface of a wafer located in the load lock, and may be adjustable in some embodiments (e.g. a movable pedestal may allow a wafer to be raised or lowered).
Likewise, the plasma source may be operated at any suitable power to form a plasma of a desired composition of radical species. Examples of suitable powers include, but are not limited to, powers between 300 W and 5000 W. Likewise, the RF power supply may provide RF power of any suitable frequency. One example of a suitable frequency for an inductively coupled plasma is 13.56 MHz.
The depicted configuration of the gas inlet 300, wall 304 and ion filter 204 may help to facilitate pumpdown of the load lock after wafer transfer. For example, by feeding an inert gas through the gas inlet 300, a back pressure may be created on the back side (i.e. opposite the pedestal) that may help to prevent condensation above a wafer on the pedestal, or the creation of a vacuum over the wafer. However, it will be understood that these parts may have any other suitable configuration.
Load lock 202 may be used in any suitable process. One specific example comprises the deposition of an etch stop layer over a Damascene structure post-CMP.
The process of flowing a remote plasma over the wafer may have various chemical effects. For example, as indicated at 514, the remote plasma may reduce metal oxides on the substrate surface, such as copper oxides formed on the exposed copper portions of the wafer surface. Likewise, as indicated at 516, where the remote plasma process follows a CMP process, the remote plasma may remove carbon residues on the wafer surface by oxidation or other suitable process. It will be understood that any suitable gas or combination of gases may be used to form the remote plasma, including but not limited to the examples given above.
Continuing with
Next, the rightmost two data bars in
As mentioned above, a remote plasma source may be used to treat wafer surfaces other than a copper/low-k surface treatment prior to etch stop deposition.
Next, at 910, the substrate is positioned in a remote plasma processing apparatus. For example, in some embodiments, as indicated at 912, the processing apparatus may comprise a load lock with a remote plasma source, such as the embodiments described herein. In the case of an etch stop deposition system or a plating system for plating copper or other metal onto a PVD-deposited seed layer, the load lock may be an incoming load lock 914. Likewise, in the case of a low-k dielectric film deposition system, the load lock may be an outgoing load lock 916. Further, in yet other embodiments, both an incoming and outgoing load lock for a processing chamber may each comprise a remote plasma source. In other embodiments, as indicated at 918, the remote plasma processing apparatus comprises a dedicated processing chamber, a dedicated station in a multi-station processing tool chamber, or the like.
Method 900 next comprises, at 920, generating a remote plasma. In some embodiments, ions may be filtered 923 from the remote plasma. In some embodiments, the remote plasma may be generated from a reducing gas or gas mixture 922, while in other embodiments, the remote plasma may be generated from an oxidizing gas or gas mixture 924. Further, in yet other embodiments, the remote plasma may be generated from both oxidizing and reducing gases. The pressure in the load lock may have any suitable value for forming a desired plasma, e.g. an inductively coupled plasma, of high density plasma, etc. For an inductively coupled plasma, the load lock pressure may be between 1 Torr and 760 Torr, for example, and between 1 Torr and 20 Torr in a more specific example. For a high density plasma regime, the load lock pressure may be between 1 mTorr and 1 Torr, for example. It will be understood that these ranges are presented for the purpose of example, and are not intended to be limiting in any manner.
Next, as indicated at 926, method 900 comprises flowing the remote plasma generated at 920 over the layer of the first material composition. In some embodiments, the remote plasma flow may be directed onto the layer of the first material composition in a direction generally normal to the surface of the substrate. In such embodiments, as described above, the remote plasma source may be configured to have an outlet with a diameter equal to or larger than the diameter of a wafer being processed. In one specific example, a remote plasma source with a 12″ diameter outlet may be used to process a 300 mm wafer. In other embodiments, the remote plasma may be directed onto the layer in any other suitable direction or directions. Further, in some embodiments, the substrate may be exposed to UV light while positioned in the remote plasma processing apparatus, as indicated at 927, either during, before, and/or after a remote plasma treatment.
As described above, the remote plasma treatment may chemically modify species such as oxides, carbon, and/or hydrocarbons on the surface. Further, in other embodiments the remote plasma treatment may modify bulk properties of the layer of the first material composition. For example, where the layer of the first material comprises a low-k dielectric layer, the remote plasma treatment may remove Si—H, Si—CHx and/or Si—OH bonds in the low-k material matrix. As other examples, the remote plasma treatment may be used to affect the physical, electrical or chemical, mechanical, adhesive or thermal properties of the surface and/or one or more of the underlying layer or layers.
After performing the remote plasma over the layer of the first material composition, method 900 next comprises, at 928, forming a layer of a second material composition on the layer of the first material composition. For example, where the layer of the first material composition comprises a surface with copper and low-k dielectric regions, the layer of the second material composition may comprise a silicon carbide (or other) etch stop layer, as indicated at 930. In another specific example, where the layer of the first material comprises tungsten, the layer of the second material may comprise, for example, a hard mask layer 932. It will be understood that these specific embodiments are described for the purpose of example, and are not intended to be limiting in any manner.
Therefore, a remote plasma may be used to remove metal oxide and carbon deposits, as well as potentially other residues, from a wafer surface with an efficacy comparable to an in situ ammonia plasma, while causing a lesser degree, or even no, degradation to a low-k layer exposed to the remote plasma. Further, the disclosed remote plasma treatment apparatus and processes also may be used to post-treat a low-k film to remove hydrogen and/or carbon from the film.
Other situations than those discussed above may exist where it may be beneficial to treat a surface to remove metal oxides, carbon, and/or or other contaminants using a remote plasma treatment before deposition of a subsequent layer. One example is the formation of a capacitor by sandwiching a dielectric between two parallel conducting plates. In some capacitors, the parallel plates may be formed with copper using a damascene process. In some examples of such processes, cobalt is deposited as an intermediary layer between the copper and the dielectric to act as a diffusion barrier between the copper and dielectric and to improve adhesion to the dielectric. After cobalt deposition, the cobalt surface may be contaminated with trace impurities such as boron, manganese, tungsten, or oxides. Therefore, treating the cobalt surface using a remote plasma treatment prior to deposition of the dielectric may remove impurities and oxides at the cobalt-dielectric interface that could degrade the quality of the capacitor, and also may help improve adhesion of the dielectric to the capacitor.
Remote plasma treatments also may be used in tungsten-related processes. For example, in a typical CMOS device, W is used to connect to the source, drain and gate of the transistor. The source and drain contact metal can be W. A silicide, such as NiSi, Pt-doped NiSi, NiSiGe, or cobalt silicide, is formed at the source and drain regions. A Ti liner to clean the contact of native oxide, and a TiN liner to promote adhesion and protect against chemical attack (e.g. from the F in a WF6 precursor) may be used prior to the CVD deposition of W. The Ti/TiN liner will be deposited therefore onto both the silicide and the pre-metal dielectric (PMD). The PMD may be a gap-fill oxide, a low-k oxide, or a spin on dielectric or other dielectric. An alternate strategy would be to replace the Ti/TiN liner with a W based liner, such as WN or a W based liner deposited using a fluorine-free precursor. A remote plasma treatment may be used prior to the deposition of the W-based liner and W contact. The remote plasma pretreatment may modify the surface (or the film itself) of the pre-metal dielectric and/or the silicide contact to facilitate the subsequent W-based liner deposition. As another example, a remote plasma treatment may be used to treat a wafer with an exposed metal gate requiring a subsequent tungsten deposition process. A high-k gate metal stack may comprise a high-k gate oxide, a work function metal, an aluminum based metal, and a gate capping layer such as Al, TiN, TiO2, AlTiOx, or Ta-based metal. The tungsten deposition process may occur in a CVD or ALD chamber using a fluorine-free tungsten precursor or a fluorine-containing precursor such as WF6. In any case, performing a remote plasma treatment may modify the surface or the bulk properties of the PMD and/or the surfaces contacting the gate, source and drain regions of the transistor. The metal gate to an SiO2-based gate dielectric may also be tungsten. Therefore, a remote plasma pretreatment prior to the formation of such a gate also may be beneficial.
Tungsten also may be used as a contact between different conducting layers in an integrated circuit. Therefore, in such implementations, it may be desirable to reduce the resistance of the conducting path. Impurities such as oxides trapped between a tungsten contact and a metal gate, copper interconnect, or silicide interconnect with which the tungsten is in contact may increase the series resistance of the contact. Therefore, removing oxides, for example, from the conducting metals with a remote plasma treatment before tungsten deposition may decrease the resistance of the contact. Tungsten or a tungsten-based conduction material may be used as part of a back-end metallization scheme. As such it may be possible that W is deposited onto a surface comprising copper and a dielectric. Remote plasma treatment may be used in this example.
A remote plasma treatment also may be used to clean a surface before deposition of a stressed nitride film. PMOS devices may benefit from compressive stressed nitride and NMOS devices may benefit from tensile stressed nitride films. A stressed nitride film may be deposited over a transistor to induce strain on the channel below the gate, which may improve the mobility of electrons or holes in the channel and thereby increase the speed of the transistor. However, the presence of oxides on the gate may interfere with the gate/nitride interface, thereby causing less strain on the transistor channel. The remote plasma treatment may be used to remove the oxides from the surface prior to deposition of nitride. By removing the oxides, the transistors may have increased mobility and increased uniformity between the transistors.
A remote plasma treatment also may be used as a surface treatment prior to a PECVD self-aligned barrier (PSAB) process. PSAB is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,396,759, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes. A PSAB process may be used to create a protective buffer layer and/or cap layer on top of copper interconnects. An example PSAB process includes cleaning the wafer after CMP, exposing the wafer surface to a first reactant to form a buffer layer over the copper interconnect, and exposing a second reactant comprising an excited gas to form a cap layer over the buffer layer. Each of the PSAB steps may be performed in a single chamber, or in multiple chambers without vacuum break. The nature of the PSAB process may limit the temperatures to which wafers may be heated in the PSAB process chamber. Therefore, performing a remote plasma pre-treatment process in a load lock may be more effective for the pretreatment cleaning than performing such a cleaning in a PSAB deposition chamber. In addition, damage to an adjacent low k, ULK or ELK material during the pretreatment step can be reduced without significantly compromising contaminant removal. The remote plasma pretreatment process may be used in place of a pretreatment step in the PSAB process, or it may be used in addition to a pretreatment step that may occur on station 1 of the CVD chamber for a PSAB. The load lock pedestal temperature may be different from that of station 1 in the process chamber. Therefore, different components of a PSAB process that might all be performed at station 1 at one process condition can be done at different temperatures (and other process conditions), affording a greater degree of flexibility.
In some embodiments, in-situ metrology may be used to measure the progress of the plasma pretreatment and to provide real-time end point detection. For example, when a desired effect of the remote plasma pretreatment is to chemically reduce copper oxide to clean copper, the oxide reduction may be measured using reflectometry, ellipsometry, or spectrometry. For example, the reflectivity of a thin film of CuO and Cu2O on copper is quite different than that of clean Cu, so reflectometry could be used to determine the endpoint of the oxide reduction process. Also, if a desired effect of the remote plasma pretreatment is to liberate moisture, an in-situ moisture detector may be used. Metrology may also be used to examine the front-side or the back-side surface conditions enabling, for example, the ability to determine if residual photoresist is present on a wafer in the load lock.
As discussed above, in some embodiments, a load lock with a remote plasma source also may include a UV radiation source. UV treatments may be used, for example, to remove labile carbon and other impurities remaining on the exposed copper and the dielectric after CMP. Removing impurities from the dielectric may help to passivate defects and remove trapped charges that otherwise would increase leakage through the dielectric. Therefore, a combination UV/remote plasma treatment in a load lock may be used to remove such labile carbon as well as copper oxides. For example, in one embodiment, a wafer may first be exposed to UV radiation to remove labile carbon, and then to a remote plasma to remove copper oxides, in a load lock prior to being transferred into a processing chamber for a film deposition process.
UV and remote plasma treatments also may be used in processes with a curing step. For example, an ultra-low-k dielectric may be created by introducing porosity in a low-k dielectric film. Inclusion of porosity in the dielectric film may be accomplished, for example, by co-depositing a backbone dielectric material (for example, an organo-silicate glass or OSG) with a pore generator (for example, an organic material). However, inducing this kind of porosity may cause degradation in the mechanical properties of the film, and may reduce its ability to sustain subsequent integration steps without mechanical damage. Therefore, after the deposition, the pore generator (porogen) may be removed from the dielectric film, and the dielectric material densified and strengthened for further processing. It will be understood that such a combined UV/remote plasma pre-treatment also may be performed using a UV cure tool coupled to a remote plasma load lock, or via any other suitable arrangement of tools and/or load locks.
UV radiation may be used to achieve both porogen removal and the strengthening of the backbone dielectric material. Further, a suitable remote plasma, such as helium, argon or xenon plasma, may be used to remove carbon from surface layers of the ultra-low-k film to further strengthen the film. For example, UV radiation may be used to drive porogen from the dielectric film and to rearrange the bond structure in the residual OSG material, while a remote plasma may be used to physically displace carbon from the ultra-low-k film, thereby densifying an outer layer of the film. The densified cap of the ultra-low-k dielectric film may help to protect the bulk ultra-low-k film from subsequent processing steps because it is mechanically stronger than the bulk material below the cap. In an alternative embodiment, a plasma may be utilized that caps the dielectric via a chemical reaction.
The combination of UV and remote plasma treatments may be performed in a single processing chamber or in multiple chambers. In one embodiment, the UV and remote plasma treatment may both be performed in the inbound or outbound load lock coupled to a processing chamber. In an alternative embodiment, an ultraviolet thermal processing (UVTP) system may be used for the UV treatment and the remote plasma treatment may be performed in the outgoing load lock coupled to the UVTP system.
Another example where UV radiation may be used in a process with a curing step is for curing polymers. It is known that exposing polymers to UV radiation promotes cross-linking of polymers in the films, a process which is associated with increased hardness, improved thermal stability, improved film cohesion, and reduced subsequent outgassing of the films. The polymers may be deposited in a CVD chamber and then cured in the outgoing load lock by exposure to UV radiation. Alternatively, the UV cure could happen in the incoming load lock on the subsequent chamber. As an alternative embodiment, molecules and/or polymers may be introduced in the load lock by adding an additional load valve going into a multi-channel gas box coupled to the gas inlet of the load lock. Molecules and/or polymers introduced through the load valve may react or be deposited on the surface of the wafer and then be cured with UV radiation.
A remote plasma treatment also may be used to chemically prepare a surface for a subsequent process that relies upon the wafer surface having a desired chemical reactivity. For example, a surface may be prepared for an ALD process via exposure to a hydrogen remote plasma, thereby terminating the surface with hydrogen atoms. Other suitable surface terminations, such as fluorine and sulfur, may be prepared in a similar manner, for example, to achieve desired nucleation properties on the surface. Likewise, a desired monolayer of material may be constructed or removed from the surface of the wafer in a similar manner. As discussed in various specific examples above, multiple processes, including a remote plasma treatment, may be performed in a load lock to treat a surface either before or after a film deposition process. For example, where a load lock comprises a heated pedestal, a remote plasma system, and a UV light system, a wafer may be brought to a desired temperature, treated with a remote plasma, and treated with UV light prior in the load lock. Where the load lock is an inbound load lock, such combinations of treatments may be used, for example, to remove labile carbon and copper oxides from a surface after a CMP process. Likewise, where the load lock is an outbound load lock, such combinations of treatments may be used, for example, to clean and densify a surface layer of a low-k dielectric. It will be appreciated that these steps may be combined sequentially or concurrently to treat the wafer in any suitable manner.
In some cases, remote plasma processing may be used in situations where a wafer breaks vacuum between a remote plasma cleaning of the wafer surface and a subsequent film deposition on the surface. Where the wafer surface is non-reactive to atmospheric gases, a vacuum break may be used with no harmful side effects. For example, a vacuum break may be used when the subsequent step is removing labile carbon, since atmospheric exposure will not cause the carbon to return to the wafer surface. As another example, because exposed aluminum oxidizes slowly, a vacuum break after a remote plasma treatment of an aluminum surface may not be harmful. In other cases, as described above for copper surface treatments, a vacuum may be maintained between remote plasma processing and a subsequent deposition process, as the cleaned surface may be susceptible to re-contamination if removed from a vacuum environment.
A load lock comprising a remote plasma treatment (and, in some embodiments, a UV treatment) may be used for the inbound and/or outbound wafer processing with any suitable processing chamber. Non-limiting examples include, but are not limited to, PECVD, CVD, ALD, PEALD, UVTP, and e-beam chambers.
In some embodiments, the disclosed embodiments may be utilized in a cluster tool, such that a single load lock controls access to multiple process chambers in a vacuum environment.
In some embodiments, load lock 1040 may be outfitted with a remote plasma source and/or a UV radiation source, such that load lock 1040 may be used for remote plasma and UV treatment, as well as serving as a bridge between atmospheric pressure and vacuum.
In other embodiments one or more processing chambers, or stations in a processing chamber, may be configured to perform remote plasma processing. As depicted, processing chambers 1010 and 1020 each comprise four processing stations. The four stations may be configured to perform a single function, or the stations may be configured differently. Therefore, one or more of the stations may be outfitted with a remote plasma source and/or a UV radiation source to enable the station to perform remote plasma and/or UV treatment in-situ.
It should be understood that the configurations and/or approaches for the remote plasma treatment of interface surfaces in a semiconductor device fabrication process described herein are exemplary in nature, and that these specific embodiments or examples are not to be considered in a limiting sense, because numerous variations are possible. For example, any of the above-described load locks may comprise an ultraviolet light source in addition to a remote plasma source. This may allow curing steps, heating steps, and the like to be performed in a same processing area as a remote plasma treatment.
The subject matter of the present disclosure includes all novel and nonobvious combinations and subcombinations of the various processes, systems and configurations, and other features, functions, acts, and/or properties disclosed herein, as well as any and all equivalents thereof.
This application is a continuation-in-part of and claims priority to application Ser. No. 12/484,047, titled REMOTE PLASMA PROCESSING OF INTERFACE SURFACES and filed on Jun. 12, 2009, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 12484047 | Jun 2009 | US |
| Child | 12533960 | US |
