Oxygen radical enhanced atomic-layer deposition using ozone plasma

1. A method of performing a radical enhanced atomic-layer deposition (RE-ALD) process on a surface of a substrate that resides within an interior of a reactor chamber, comprising:

forming from ozone an ozone plasma to generate oxygen radicals O*, wherein the ozone plasma is inductively formed within a plasma tube that is pneumatically coupled to the interior of the reactor chamber, and wherein the oxygen radicals O* are formed at a rate greater than twice that as compared to using an oxygen plasma; and

sequentially feeding the oxygen radicals and a precursor gas into the interior of the reactor chamber to form an oxide film on the substrate surface.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the precursor gas comprises a metal organic precursor.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the metal organic precursor is selected from the group comprising: silicon, aluminum, hafnium, titanium, zirconium, tantalum, yttrium and magnesium.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the oxide film comprises a metal oxide.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the metal oxide is selected from the group comprising: SiO 2 , Al 2 O 3 , HfO 2 , TiO 2 , ZrO 2 , Ta 2 O 5 , Y 2 O 3 and Mg 2 O 4 .

6. The method of claim 1 , including introducing a purge gas into the interior of the reactor chamber to assist in purging the interior of the reactor chamber of either the oxygen radicals or the precursor gas.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the generating of the oxygen radicals O* includes dissociating an ozone molecule to form diatomic oxygen molecule O 2 and a first oxygen radical O*, and then dissociating the diatomic oxygen molecule O 2 to form second and third oxygen radicals O*.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the substrate comprises a silicon wafer.

9. A method of performing a radical enhanced atomic-layer deposition (RE-ALD) process on a surface of a substrate that resides within an interior of a reactor chamber, comprising:

providing a first precursor gas comprising oxygen radicals O* by forming an ozone plasma from ozone gas within a plasma tube by inductive coupling, wherein the plasma tube is pneumatically coupled to the interior of the reactor chamber, and wherein the oxygen radicals O* are formed at a rate greater than twice that as compared to using an oxygen plasma;

providing a second precursor gas from a gas source that is pneumatically coupled to the interior of the reactor chamber; and

sequentially introducing the first precursor gas and the second precursor gas into the interior of the reactor chamber to form an oxide film on the substrate surface.

10. The method according to claim 9 , wherein one of the first and second precursor gases comprises at least one of: silicon, aluminum, hafnium, titanium, zirconium, tantalum, yttrium and magnesium.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the oxide film comprises one of: SiO 2 , Al 2 O 3 , HfO 2 , TiO 2 , ZrO 2 , Ta 2 O 5 , Y 2 O 3 and Mg 2 O 4 .

12. The method of claim 9 , including introducing a purge gas into the interior of the reactor chamber to assist in purging the interior of the reactor chamber of either the first or precursor gas or the second precursor gas.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein the substrate comprises a silicon wafer.

14. The method of claim 9 , wherein the plasma tube is made of quartz.

15. The method of claim 9 , wherein forming the oxygen radicals O*

includes:

dissociating an ozone molecule to form diatomic oxygen molecule O 2 and a first oxygen radical O*; and

dissociating the diatomic oxygen molecule O 2 to form second and third oxygen radicals O*.