Method of growing electrical conductors
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method of producing a conductive thin film, comprising:
- depositing a metal oxide thin film on a substrate by an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process; and
at least partially reducing the metal oxide thin film by exposing the metal oxide thin film to a gaseous inorganic reducing agent, thereby forming a metal layer.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method for forming a conductive thin film includes depositing a metal oxide thin film on a substrate by an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process. The method further includes at least partially reducing the metal oxide thin film by exposing the metal oxide thin film to a gaseous inorganic reducing agent, thereby forming a metal layer. In preferred arrangements, the reducing agent comprises of thermal hydrogen (H2), hydrogen radicals (H*) and/or carbon monoxide (CO).
108 Citations
38 Claims
-
1. A method of producing a conductive thin film, comprising:
-
depositing a metal oxide thin film on a substrate by an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process; and
at least partially reducing the metal oxide thin film by exposing the metal oxide thin film to a gaseous inorganic reducing agent, thereby forming a metal layer. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
-
-
24. A method of producing a conductive thin film comprising the steps of:
-
A. placing a substrate in a chamber;
B. exposing the substrate to a vapor phase first reactant, wherein the first reactant adsorbs no more than a molecular monolayer of metal species on the substrate;
C. removing excess first reactant and gaseous reaction byproducts from the chamber;
D. exposing the substrate to a second vapor phase reactant comprising a compound that is capable of oxidizing the adsorbed metal species on the substrate into metal oxide;
E. removing excess second reactant and gaseous reaction byproducts from the chamber;
F. repeating the above steps B through E at least three times to form a metal oxide film; and
G. following step F, exposing the substrate to a gaseous inorganic reducing agent to reduce the metal oxide film to metal. - View Dependent Claims (25)
-
-
26. A method of producing an electrically conductive thin film, comprising:
-
depositing a metal oxide thin film on a partially fabricated integrated circuit by an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process, the metal oxide thin film having a thickness of at least 0.6 nm; and
at least partially reducing the metal oxide thin film to elemental metal with a gaseous inorganic reducing agent. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
-
Specification