An exemplary system may include a chamber configured to contain a semiconductor substrate in a processing region of the chamber. The system may include a first remote plasma unit fluidly coupled with a first access of the chamber and configured to deliver a first precursor into the chamber through the first access. The system may still further include a second remote plasma unit fluidly coupled with a second access of the chamber and configured to deliver a second precursor into the chamber through the second access. The first and second access may be fluidly coupled with a mixing region of the chamber that is separate from and fluidly coupled with the processing region of the chamber. The mixing region may be configured to allow the first and second precursors to interact with each other externally from the processing region of the chamber.

Semiconductor processing systems having multiple plasma configurations

Physics and technology of magnetron sputtering discharges

Systems, chambers, and processes are provided for controlling process defects caused by moisture contamination. The systems may provide configurations for chambers to perform multiple operations in a vacuum or controlled environment. The chambers may include configurations to provide additional processing capabilities in combination chamber designs. The methods may provide for the limiting, prevention, and correction of aging defects that may be caused as a result of etching processes performed by system tools.

Processing systems and methods for halide scavenging

Methods of etching exposed titanium nitride with respect to other materials on patterned heterogeneous structures are described, and may include a remote plasma etch formed from a fluorine-containing precursor. Precursor combinations including plasma effluents from the remote plasma are flowed into a substrate processing region to etch the patterned structures with high titanium nitride selectivity under a variety of operating conditions. The methods may be used to remove titanium nitride at faster rates than a variety of metal, nitride, and oxide compounds.

Selective titanium nitride etching

Methods are described herein for etching metal films which are difficult to volatize. The methods include exposing a metal film to a chlorine-containing precursor (e.g. Cl 2 ). Chlorine is then removed from the substrate processing region. A carbon-and-nitrogen-containing precursor (e.g. TMEDA) is delivered to the substrate processing region to form volatile metal complexes which desorb from the surface of the metal film. The methods presented remove metal while very slowly removing the other exposed materials. A thin metal oxide layer may be present on the surface of the metal layer, in which case a local plasma from hydrogen may be used to remove the oxygen or amorphize the near surface region, which has been found to increase the overall etch rate.

Oxide and metal removal

Methods of controlling the polarity of capacitive plasma power applied to a remote plasma are described. Rather than applying a plasma power which involves both a positive and negative voltage swings equally, a capacitive plasma power is applied which favors either positive or negative voltage swings in order to select desirable process attributes. For example, the plasma power may be formed by applying a unipolar oscillating voltage between an electrode and a perforated plate. The unipolar oscillating voltage may have only positive or only negative voltages between the electrode and the perforated plate. The unipolar oscillating voltage may cross electrical ground in some portion of its oscillating voltage.

Polarity control for remote plasma

Embodiments of the present technology may include a method of processing a semiconductor substrate. The method may include providing the semiconductor substrate in a processing region. Additionally, the method may include flowing gas through a cavity defined by a powered electrode. The method may further include applying a negative voltage to the powered electrode. Also, the method may include striking a hollow cathode discharge in the cavity to form hollow cathode discharge effluents from the gas. The hollow cathode discharge effluents may then be flowed to the processing region through a plurality of apertures defined by electrically grounded electrode. The method may then include reacting the hollow cathode discharge effluents with the semiconductor substrate in the processing region.

Dual discharge modes operation for remote plasma

A wafer chuck assembly includes a puck, a shaft and a base. An insulating material defines a top surface of the puck, a heater element is embedded within the insulating material, and a conductive plate lies beneath the insulating material. The shaft includes a housing coupled with the plate, and electrical connectors for the heater elements and the electrodes. A conductive base housing couples with the shaft housing, and the connectors pass through a terminal block within the base housing. A method of plasma processing includes loading a workpiece onto a chuck having an insulating top surface, providing a DC voltage differential across two electrodes within the top surface, heating the chuck by passing current through heater elements, providing process gases in a chamber surrounding the chuck, and providing an RF voltage between a conductive plate beneath the chuck, and one or more walls of the chamber.

High temperature chuck for plasma processing systems

Characteristic properties of backlight arraying electrodeless fluorescent lamps assembled with capacitive coupled electrode connector have been investigated in various frequencies with a switching inverter. In the backlight of a 17-in diagonal with 12 lamps driven by square pulses, the efficiency of 65/spl sim/70 lm/W and the luminance of 5000/spl sim/10 000 cd/m/sup 2/ have been achieved in the frequency range of 40/spl sim/80 kHz where the higher frequency provides the lower operating voltage in the range of 1.0/spl sim/2.0 kV.

Capacitive coupled electrodeless discharge backlight driven by square pulses

An argon plasma generated between the cone-shaped electrode powered by commercial electronic ballast and grounded plane electrode has been investigated Since the electronic ballast has positive and negative cycle in a period, two different discharge modes of remote plasma—the normal glow discharge mode and the hollow cathode discharge mode—have been observed It is noted that the hollow cathode discharge mode has wider operation window in gas pressure than the glow discharge one The glow discharge started to be extinguished at pressure higher than 41 torr and turned to the hollow cathode discharge mode in the holes on ground plate, while the hollow cathode discharge mode kept growing until 10 torr These results show that the stable operation window of the system could be defined by the glow discharge mode rather than the hollow cathode discharge mode and could be improved by optimizing the applied voltage waveform and electrode configuration

Tae Seung Cho

Papers

Polarity control for remote plasma

Dual discharge modes operation for remote plasma

High temperature chuck for plasma processing systems

Capacitive coupled electrodeless discharge backlight driven by square pulses

Dual Discharge Modes Operation of an Argon Plasma Generated by Commercial Electronic Ballast for Remote Plasma Removal Process