Modern computer microprocessor chips are marvels of engineering complexity. For the current 45 nm technology node, there may be nearly a billion transistors on a chip barely 1 cm2 and more than 10 000 m of wiring connecting and powering these devices distributed over 9-10 wiring levels. This represents quite an advance from the first INTEL 4004B microprocessor chip introduced in 1971 with 10 μm minimum dimensions and 2 300 transistors on the chip! It has been disclosed that advanced microprocessor chips at the 32 nm node will have more than 2 billion transistors.1 For instance, Figure 1 shows a sectional 3D image of a 90 nm IBM microprocessor, containing several hundred million integrated devices and 10 levels of interconnect wiring, designated as the back-end-of-the-line (BEOL). Since the invention of microprocessors, the number of active devices on a chip has been exponentially increasing, approximately doubling every two years. This trend was first described in 1965 by Gordon Moore,2 although the original discussion suggested doubling the number of devices every year, and the phenomenon became popularly known as Moore’s Law. This progress has proven remarkably resilient and has persisted for more than 50 years. The enabler that has permitted these advances is known as scaling, that is, the reduction of minimum device dimensions by lithographic advances (photoresists, tooling, and process integration optimization) by ∼30% for each device generation.3 It allowed more active devices to be incorporated in a given area and improved the operating characteristics of the individual transistors. It should be emphasized that the earlier improvements in chip performance were achieved with very few changes in the materials used in the construction of the chips themselves. The increase of performance with scaling * Corresponding author. E-mail: gdubois@us.ibm.com. † IBM Almaden Research Center. ‡ Stanford University. Willi Volksen received his B.S. in Chemistry (magna cum laude) from New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in 1972 and his Ph.D. in Chemistry/Polymer Science from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, in 1975. He then joined the research group of Prof. Harry Gray/Dr. Alan Rembaum at the California Institute of Technology as a postdoctoral fellow and upon completion of the one-year appointment joined Dr. Rembaum at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a Senior Chemist in 1976. In 1977 Dr. Volksen joined the IBM Research Division at the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, CA, where he is an active research staff member in the Advanced Materials Group of the Science and Technology function.

Low dielectric constant materials.

A showerhead including a body having an opening, a first plate positioned within the opening and having a plurality of slots, a second plate positioned within the opening and having a plurality of slots, and wherein each of the first plate plurality of slots are concentrically aligned with the second plate plurality of slots.

Semiconductor reaction chamber showerhead

A gas inlet system for a wafer processing reactor includes a tubular gas manifold conduit adapted to be connected to a gas inlet port of the wafer processing reactor; and gas feeds including a first feed for feeding a first gas into the tubular gas manifold conduit and a second feed for feeding a second gas into the tubular gas manifold conduit. Each feed has two or more injection ports connected to the tubular gas manifold conduit at a first axial position of the tubular gas manifold conduit, and the injection ports of each of the gas feeds are evenly distributed along a circumference of the tubular gas manifold conduit at the first axial position.

Gas Supply Manifold And Method Of Supplying Gases To Chamber Using Same

A gas distribution system, a reactor system including the gas distribution system, and method of using the gas distribution system and reactor system are disclosed. The gas distribution system can be used in gas-phase reactor systems to independently fine tune gas source locations and gas flow rates of reactants to a reaction chamber of the reactor systems.

Gas distribution system, reactor including the system, and methods of using the same

An improved exhaust system for a gas-phase reactor and a reactor and system including the exhaust system are disclosed. The exhaust system includes a channel fluidly coupled to an exhaust plenum. The improved exhaust system allows operation of a gas-phase reactor with desired flow characteristics while taking up relatively little space within a reaction chamber.

Gas-phase reactor and system having exhaust plenum and components thereof

The present invention addresses the key challenges in FinFET fabrication, that is, the fabrications of thin, uniform fins and also reducing the source/drain series resistance. More particularly, this application relates to FinFET fabrication techniques utilizing tetrasilane to enable conformal deposition with high doping using phosphate, arsenic and boron as dopants thereby creating thin fins having uniform thickness (uniformity across devices) as well as smooth, vertical sidewalls, while simultaneously reducing the parasitic series resistance.

Methods for selective and conformal epitaxy of highly doped si-containing materials for three dimensional structures

We have computationally explored the chemical structures of carbon-doped silicon oxide (SiOCH) films that give the smallest dielectric constant (k) under the required mechanical strength for low-k dielectrics. The focus of this study is on the SiOCH structures that have hydrocarbon components in the polymer network as cross-links. It has been found that SiOCH films of small dielectric constants can have improved mechanical strengths if the hydrocarbon components form cross-links, instead of the terminal methyl groups in the conventional structure. The calculated results suggest that SiOCH films of ideal structures can have substantially smaller dielectric constants than films of current interconnect technology with the same mechanical strengths.

Carbon-Doped Silicon Oxide Films with Hydrocarbon Network Bonds for Low-$k$ Dielectrics: Theoretical Investigations

Gas phase particle formation and elimination on Si (100) in low temperature reduced pressure chemical vapor deposition silicon-based epitaxial layers

High strain embedded-SiGe via low temperature reduced pressure chemical vapor deposition

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain an insulating film, low in dielectric constant useful to the interlayer insulating film or the like of a semiconductor device and high in the mechanical strength. SOLUTION: Diisopropyl divinylsilane, diaryldivinylsilane or the like is used as the material of an insulating film and film is formed through plasma CVD (chemical vapor deposition) method. Accompanying gas which does not contain oxygen such as He, Ar, Kr, Xe, hydrogen, hydrocarbon whose carbon number is 2-6 or the like can be accompanied upon forming the film. The film can be formed by adding porogen such as 1-methyl-4-isopyr-1, 3-cyclohexadiene or the like or the film can be formed by changing high-frequency electric power for generating plasma, the flow rate of film forming gas or a film forming pressure. COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Manabu Shinriki

Papers

Methods for selective and conformal epitaxy of highly doped si-containing materials for three dimensional structures

Carbon-Doped Silicon Oxide Films with Hydrocarbon Network Bonds for Low-$k$ Dielectrics: Theoretical Investigations

Gas phase particle formation and elimination on Si (100) in low temperature reduced pressure chemical vapor deposition silicon-based epitaxial layers

High strain embedded-SiGe via low temperature reduced pressure chemical vapor deposition

Insulating film material, film forming method employing the insulating film material, and insulating film