Granted Patent B2

US 12,272,547 · App. 18/539,977 · Granted Apr 8, 2025

Inventors: Bhadri N. Varadarajan (Beaverton, OR); Bo Gong (Sherwood, OR); Zhe Gui (Beaverton, OR)

Assignee: Novellus Systems, Inc.

H01L21/02167C23C16/045C23C16/325C23C16/452C23C16/505C23C16/511H01L21/02126H01L21/02211H01L21/02216H01L21/02222H01L21/02274H01L21/76831H01L21/76834H01L29/4983H01L29/4991H01L21/7682H01L2221/1047

Abstract

Claims (13)

1. A method of depositing a silicon-carbon-containing film, the method comprising:

flowing a silicon-containing precursor to a substrate in a reaction chamber through a first gas inlet, wherein the silicon-containing precursor comprises at least one of a silicon-silicon (Si—Si) bond or a silicon-hydrogen bond (Si—H) bond, and at least one of a silicon-carbon (Si—C) bond, a silicon-nitrogen (Si—N) bond, or a silicon-oxygen (Si—O) bond;

generating, from a gas mixture of hydrogen gas and inert carrier gas, hydrogen radicals in a plasma source remote from the reaction chamber; and

introducing the hydrogen radicals generated from the plasma source into the reaction chamber through a second gas inlet separate from the first gas inlet, wherein the hydrogen radicals relax to a lower energy state passing from the plasma source to an environment adjacent to the substrate, wherein the hydrogen radicals react with the silicon-containing precursor to deposit the silicon-carbon-containing film on the substrate, and wherein the environment adjacent to the substrate during deposition of the silicon-carbon-containing film is free or substantially free of ions.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the silicon-containing precursor is free of carbon-oxygen (C—O) bonds and carbon-nitrogen (C—N) bonds.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

flowing a co-reactant to the substrate in the reaction chamber, wherein the hydrogen radicals react with the silicon-containing precursor and the co-reactant to deposit the silicon-carbon-containing film.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the hydrogen radicals are introduced into the reaction chamber second gas inlet providing fluid communication between the plasma source and the reaction chamber, and wherein the silicon-containing precursor is flowed into the reaction chamber first gas inlet downstream of the plasma source.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the silicon-carbon-containing film has a density between 2 g/cc and 2.7 g/cc.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the silicon-carbon-containing film has an effective dielectric constant equal to or less than 4.0.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the substrate has one or more recessed features, wherein the silicon-carbon-containing film has a conformality of at least 90% in the one or more recessed features of the substrate.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the silicon-carbon-containing film is deposited at a temperature between 50° C. and 500° C. and a pressure between 0.2 Torr and 8 Torr.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the silicon-carbon-containing film is deposited on an exposed metal surface of the substrate without oxidizing the exposed metal surface.

Continuity (6)

References Cited (400)