NANOLAYER DEPOSITION USING PLASMA TREATMENT
A process to deposit a thin film by chemical vapor deposition includes evacuating a chamber of gases; exposing a device to a gaseous first reactant, wherein the first reactant deposits on the device to form the thin film having a plurality of monolayers in thickness; evacuating the chamber of gases; exposing the device, coated with the first reactant, to a gaseous second reactant under a plasma treatment, wherein the thin film is treated by the first reactant; and repeating the previous steps.
1 . A process to deposit a thin film on a device by chemical vapor deposition, comprising:
(a) exposing a device to a gaseous first reactant, wherein the first reactant deposits on the device to form a layer having a thickness of more than a monolayer;
(b) exposing the device, coated with the first reactant, to a gaseous second reactant under a plasma treatment, wherein a full thickness of the layer deposited by the first reactant is treated; and
(c) repeating steps (a) and (b) until the thin film comprising a plurality of layers is deposited.
2 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the device is a wafer.
3 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the plasma treatment enhances or maintains the thin film density or conformality.
4 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the plasma is a high density plasma with higher than 5×10 9 ions/cm 3 .
5 . The process of claim 1 , wherein one of the reactants comprises a metal organic reactant.
6 . The process of claim 1 , wherein one of the reactants comprises an organic reactant.
7 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the thin film comprises a metal film.
8 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the thin film comprises a metal nitride film or a metal oxide film.
9 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the second reactant is exposed under high pressure above approximately one hundred milliTorr (100 mTorr).
10 . The process of claim 1 , further comprising pressurizing the chamber to a high pressure above approximately one hundred milliTorr (100 mTorr).
11 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the first and second reactants react.
12 . The process of claim 11 , wherein the reaction creates a new compound.
13 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the thin film thickness is between a fraction of a nanometer and ten nanometers.
14 . The process of claim 1 , further comprising sequentially pulsing the plasma for each layer to be deposited.
15 . The process of claim 1 , further comprising exciting the plasma with a solid state RF plasma source.
16 . The process of claim 1 , further comprising purging a chamber containing the device.
17 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the plasma treatment is an isotropic plasma treatment.
18 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the plasma treatment treats the layer deposited by the first reactant to form a different material.
19 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the plasma treatment treats the layer deposited by the first reactant to form a same material.
20 . A process to deposit a thin film by chemical vapor deposition, comprising:
(a) pre-cleaning a surface of a device;
(b) stabilizing precursor flow and pressure;
(c) exposing the device to a gaseous first reactant, wherein the first reactant deposits on the device to form a layer having a thickness of more than a monolayer;
(d) purging the chamber;
(e) striking a plasma;
(f) performing an isotropic plasma treatment for the deposition;
(g) exposing the device, coated with the first reactant, to a gaseous second reactant under the isotropic plasma treatment, the layer deposited by the first reactant is treated; and
(h) repeating steps (b)-(g) until the thin film comprising a plurality of layers is deposited.
21 . The process of claim 20 , wherein striking the plasma comprises supplying one or a combination of N 2 , H 2 , Ar, He and NH 3 .
22 . The process of claim 20 , wherein performing the isotropic plasma treatment treats a full thickness of the layer deposited by the first reactant.