Ground state hydrogen radical sources for chemical vapor deposition of silicon-carbon-containing films

Abstract

A thin layer of a silicon-carbon-containing film is deposited on a substrate by generating hydrogen radicals from hydrogen gas supplied to a radicals generation chamber, supplying the hydrogen radicals to a substrate processing chamber separate from the substrate processing chamber via a multiport gas distributor, and reacting the hydrogen radicals therein with an organosilicon reactant introduced into the substrate processing chamber concurrently. The hydrogen radicals are allowed to relax into a ground state in a radicals relaxation zone within the substrate processing chamber before reacting with the organosilicon reactant.

Description

[0001] This application is a divisional application of an invention patent application with an application date of October 24, 2014, a Chinese patent application number of 201410576747.1, and an invention title of "Ground State Hydrogen Radical Source for Chemical Vapor Deposition of Silicon-Containing Carbon Films". technical field [0002] The present invention relates generally to the field of semiconductor processing, and more particularly to a source of ground state hydrogen radicals for chemical vapor deposition of silicon-containing carbon films. Background technique [0003] Silicon carbide films are often used as barrier layers in semiconductor substrate processing operations. As such, silicon carbide films often must have a high density (e.g., greater than about 2 g / cc), must be hermetic, and must have low porosity to prevent unwanted material (e.g., metal atoms or air) from diffusing or Undesirable etching of the barrier layer is prevented. [0004] Some have sug...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, wall collisions and other quenching events are expected to reduce the yield of active species produced by remote plasmas

Furthermore, film deposition rates for remote hydrogen plasma processing are expected to be unacceptably low

Since silicon carbide film density is believed to vary inversely with process pressure, an increase in process pressure intended to increase deposition rate may detrimentally reduce film density, thereby resulting in unacceptable barrier layer performance properties

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