System and method for radical and thermal processing of substrates

1. A method of making a memory device on a substrate, comprising:

positioning the substrate in a first processing chamber comprising a first processing volume, the substrate comprising a channel structure disposed within a film stack of the substrate, the channel structure having an aspect ratio greater than about 20:1;

exposing a silicon-containing layer of the channel structure to a deuterium plasma in the first processing volume at a flow rate of about 10 sccm to about 5000 sccm, the substrate maintained at a temperature of about 100° C. to about 1100° C. during the exposing, the exposing forming a nucleated substrate; and

directly after the exposing, performing a thermal anneal operation on the substrate.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the deuterium plasma is formed from a deuterium containing gas in a remote plasma source.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein:

the deuterium containing gas comprises a He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe, N 2 , or a combination thereof; and

D 2 .

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising positioning the nucleated substrate in a second processing chamber comprising a second processing volume; and

performing the thermal anneal operation on the substrate.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein performing the thermal anneal operation comprises a temperature of about 400° C. to about 1100° C. for about 10 minutes to about 2 hours, at a pressure of about 1 Torr to about 3800 Torr.

6. The method of claim 1 , exposing the silicon-containing layer to the deuterium plasma in the first processing volume comprises flowing the deuterium plasma into the first processing volume at a flow rate of about 100 sccm to about 1500 sccm.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the exposing the substrate in the first processing volume occurs for about 1 minute to about 30 minutes, at a pressure of about 10 mTorr to about 530 Torr.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the deuterium plasma is formed using an inductively coupled plasma source.

9. A system comprising an algorithm stored in a memory of the system, wherein the algorithm comprises a number of instructions which, when executed by a processor, causes the method of claim 1 to be performed.

10. A method of making a memory device on a substrate comprising:

forming a channel structure in a film stack by etching a channel in the film stack and placing a channel layer at a bottom and in an inner surface of the channel, the channel structure in the film stack having aspect ratios greater than about 20:1;

exposing the channel structure with deuterium radicals in a first processing volume of a first processing chamber; and

directly after the exposing, heating the channel structure at a temperature of about 100° C. to about 1100° C.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein exposing the channel structure to deuterium radicals and heating the channel structure comprises heating the channel structure in the first processing volume at a temperature of about 400° C. to about 1100° C. for about 1 minute to about 30 minutes.

12. The method of claim 10 , further comprising heating the channel structure at a temperature of about 400° C. to about 1100° C. in a second process volume.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the film stack is a 3D NAND film stack, and the channel layer is an amorphous or polycrystalline layer comprising from about 0 wt. % to about 100 wt. % of silicon and about 0 wt. % to about 100 wt. % of a group III, IV and V element.

14. The method of claim 10 , further comprising forming the film stack, wherein forming the film stack comprises depositing alternating oxide layers and nitride layers, or alternating oxide layers and polysilicon layers.

15. A method of processing a substrate comprising:

forming an amorphous silicon-containing layer over a bottom and inner surface of a channel formed in a film stack of the substrate, the film stack comprising alternating oxide and nitride layers (ON) or of alternating oxide and polysilicon layers (OP);

exposing the amorphous silicon-containing layer to deuterium radicals;

heating the substrate at a first temperature of about 100° C. to about 1100° C. to form a nucleated silicon-containing layer of the substrate; and

directly after forming a nucleated silicon-containing layer of the substrate, heating the nucleated silicon-containing layer at a second temperature different from the first temperature.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the silicon-containing layer and channel of the substrate form high aspect ratio features having aspect ratios greater than about 20:1.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the substrate is heated at the first temperature in a first process volume of a first process chamber and the nucleated silicon-containing layer of the substrate is heated to the second temperature in a second process volume of a second process chamber.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein a flow rate of the deuterium radicals into the first process volume is from about 10 sccm to about 5000 sccm.

19. The method of claim 17 , further comprising heating the substrate in the first process volume at a temperature of about 400° C. to about 1100° C., for about 1 minute to about 30 minutes.

20. The method of claim 15 , further comprising heating the nucleated silicon-containing layer of the substrate at a temperature of about 400° C. to about 1100° C. for about 10 minutes to about 2 hours and a pressure of about 1 Torr to about 3800 Torr.