Varying conductance out of a process region to control gas flux in an ALD reactor
First Claim
1. A method performed in an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process conducted in a process chamber, the method comprising:
- supplying a gas to the process chamber;
varying a flux of the gas to a substrate an ALD process by varying the chamber conductance.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A deposition system includes a process chamber for conducting an ALD process to deposit layers on a substrate. In one embodiment, instead of varying the gas flux on a substrate in the chamber by controlling the flow of gas upstream of the process chamber, the gas flux on the substrate is controlled by controlling the conductance between the process chamber and a lower pressure volume outside the process chamber. The flux of the gas on the substrate varies inversely with the chamber conductance, such that the flux of the gas on the substrate increases when the conductance decreases. Various methods of performing an ALD process by controlling the conductance are disclosed as well as various structures for controlling the conductance.
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Citations
19 Claims
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1. A method performed in an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process conducted in a process chamber, the method comprising:
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supplying a gas to the process chamber;
varying a flux of the gas to a substrate an ALD process by varying the chamber conductance. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. In a deposition process performed in a process chamber having a process region, a method comprising:
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introducing a gas into the process region for a first duration;
increasing the conductance out of the process region for a second duration;
introducing at least one additional gas;
decreasing the conductance out of the process region for a third duration; and
increasing the conductance out of the process region for a fourth duration.
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Specification