Hybrid PVD-CVD system

• US 20070020903A1
• Filed: 07/19/2005
• Published: 01/25/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Applied Materials Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Applied Materials Incorporated
• Inventors: Sun, Sheng, Takehara, Takako, White, John
• Granted Patent: US 7,432,201 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 438/592
• CPC Class Codes: C23C 14/568 Transferring the substrates through a series of coating stations C23C14/562 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: C23C 16/54 Apparatus specially adapted for continuous coating
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/458 for thin film silicon, e.g. source or drain electrode
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/4908 for thin film semiconductor, e.g. gate of TFT
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/66765 Lateral single gate single channel transistors with inverted structure, i.e. the channel layer is formed after the gate

Abstract

A method for making a film stack containing one or more silicon-containing layers and one or more metal-containing layers and a substrate processing system for forming the film stack on a substrate are provided. The substrate processing system includes one or more transfer chambers coupled to one or more load lock chambers and two or more different types of process chambers. The two or more types of process chambers are used to deposit the one or more silicon-containing layers and the one or more metal-containing layers in the same substrate processing system without breaking the vacuum, taking the substrate out of the substrate processing system to prevent surface contamination, oxidation, etc., such that additional cleaning or surface treatment steps can be eliminated. The substrate processing system is configured to provide high throughput and compact footprint for in-situ substrate processing and carry out different types of processes.

Claims

1. A method of processing a film stack containing one or more silicon-containing layers and one or more metal-containing layers on a substrate in a substrate processing system, comprising:

depositing the one or more silicon-containing layers on the substrate by a chemical vapor deposition process chamber of the substrate processing system;

transferring the substrate from the chemical vapor deposition process chamber into a physical vapor deposition process chamber of the same substrate processing system without breaking vacuum; and

depositing the one or more metal-containing layers on the surface of the silicon-containing layers by the physical vapor deposition process chamber without any surface treatment of the one or more silicon-containing layers.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more silicon-containing layers comprises a material selected from the group consisting of amorphous silicon, n+ doped amorphous silicon, silicon nitride, p+doped amorphous silicon, silicon oxide, silicon carbide, silicon oxyinitride, and combinations thereof.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more metal-containing layers comprises a material selected from the group consisting of aluminum (Al), molybdenum (Mo), neodymium (Nd), aluminum neodymium (AlNd), tungsten (W), chromium (Cr), tantalum (Ta), titanium (Ti), copper (Cu), aluminum nitride (Al_xN_y), molybdenum nitride (Mo_xN_y), tantalum nitride (TaN), titanium nitride (TiN), other metal nitrides, their alloys, and combinations thereof.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the substrate processing system is configured to process one or more large area substrates for fabricating devices selected from the group consisting of flat panel display (FPD), organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays, flexible organic light emitting diode (FOLED) display, polymer light emitting diode (PLED) display, liquid crystal displays (LCD), organic thin film transistor, active matrix, passive matrix, top emission device, bottom emission device, solar cell, solar panel, and combinations thereof.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the substrate processing system is configured to process one or more large area substrates of about one square meter or larger.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising transferring the substrate into the one or more chemical vapor deposition process chamber using a first rotably movable vacuum transfer robot positioned in a first transfer chamber of the substrate processing system.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising transferring the substrate into and out of the physical vapor deposition process chamber using a second rotably movable vacuum transfer robot positioned in a second transfer chamber of the substrate processing system.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising transferring the substrate into and out of the physical vapor deposition process chamber using a substrate transfer shuttle mechanism of the substrate processing system.

9. A method of processing a film stack containing one or more silicon-containing layers and one or more metal-containing layers on a substrate in a substrate processing system, comprising:

loading the substrate into one or more load lock chambers of the substrate processing system;

transferring the substrate from the one or more load lock chambers into a first transfer chamber having a rotably movable vacuum transfer robot;

transferring the substrate from the first transfer chamber into one or more chemical vapor deposition process chambers of the substrate processing system;

depositing the one or more silicon-containing layers on the substrate by the one or more chemical vapor deposition process chambers;

transferring the substrate from the one or more chemical vapor deposition process chambers into one or more physical vapor deposition process chamber of the same substrate processing system without breaking vacuum;

depositing the one or more metal-containing layers on the surface of the silicon-containing layers by the one or more physical vapor deposition process chambers without any surface treatment of the one or more silicon-containing layers;

transferring the substrate from the one or more physical vapor deposition process chambers into the first transfer chamber;

transferring the substrate from the first transfer chamber into the one or more load lock chambers; and

unloading the substrate from the one or more load lock chambers.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising transferring the substrate among the one or more physical vapor deposition process chambers using a second transfer chamber having a second rotably movable vacuum transfer robot coupled thereto.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising transferring the substrate among the one or more physical vapor deposition process chambers using a second shuttle chamber having a substrate transfer shuttle mechanism coupled thereto.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising transferring the substrate among the one or more physical vapor deposition process chambers using a second load lock chamber having a substrate transfer shuttle mechanism coupled thereto.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the substrate is transferred from the one or more load lock chambers through a second transfer chamber into the first transfer chamber before transferring into the one or more chemical vapor deposition process chambers.

14. A method of processing a film stack containing one or more silicon-containing layers and one or more metal-containing layers on a substrate in a substrate processing system, comprising:

loading the substrate into a first load lock chamber of the substrate processing system;

transferring the substrate into one or more chemical vapor deposition process chambers of the substrate processing system using a vacuum transfer robot positioned in a first transfer chamber of the substrate processing system;

depositing the one or more silicon-containing layers on the substrate by the one or more chemical vapor deposition process chambers of the substrate processing system;

transferring the substrate from the one or more chemical vapor deposition process chambers into one or more physical vapor deposition process chambers of the same substrate processing system without breaking vacuum;

depositing the one or more metal-containing layers on the surface of the one or more silicon-containing layers by the one or more physical vapor deposition process chambers;

transferring the substrate from the one or more physical vapor deposition process chambers into the first load lock chamber; and

unloading the substrate from the first load lock chamber of the substrate processing system.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the one or more silicon-containing layers comprises a material selected from the group consisting of amorphous silicon, n+doped amorphous silicon, silicon nitride, p+doped amorphous silicon, silicon oxide, silicon carbide, silicon oxyinitride, and combinations thereof.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the one or more metal-containing layers comprises a material selected from the group consisting of aluminum (Al), molybdenum (Mo), neodymium (Nd), aluminum neodymium (AlNd), tungsten (W), chromium (Cr), tantalum (Ta), titanium (Ti), copper (Cu), aluminum nitride (Al_xN_y), molybdenum nitride (Mo_xN_y), tantalum nitride (TaN), titanium nitride (TiN), other metal nitrides, their alloys, and combinations thereof.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the substrate processing system is configured to process one or more large area substrates for fabricating devices selected from the group consisting of flat panel display (FPD), organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays, flexible organic light emitting diode (FOLED) display, polymer light emitting diode (PLED) display, liquid crystal displays (LCD), organic thin film transistor, active matrix, passive matrix, top emission device, bottom emission device, solar cell, solar panel, and combinations thereof.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the substrate processing system is configured to process one or more large area substrates of about one square meter or larger.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the vacuum transfer robot in the first transfer chamber is configured to be rotably movable among the one or more chemical vapor deposition process chambers.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein transferring the substrate into the one or more chemical vapor deposition process chambers further comprises transferring the substrate from the first load lock chamber into a second transfer chamber, and transferring the substrate from the second transfer chamber into the first transfer chamber coupled to the one or more chemical vapor deposition process chambers.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising transferring the substrate from the second transfer chamber into a second load lock chamber and transferring the substrate from the second load lock chamber into the first transfer chamber.

22. A method of processing a film stack containing one or more silicon-containing layers and one or more metal-containing layers on a substrate in a substrate processing system, comprising:

loading the substrate into a first load lock chamber of the substrate processing system;

transferring the substrate from the first load lock chamber through a first transfer chamber into a second transfer chamber;

transferring the substrate from the second transfer chamber into one or more chemical vapor deposition process chambers of the substrate processing system;

depositing the one or more silicon-containing layers on the substrate by the one or more chemical vapor deposition process chambers of the substrate processing system;

transferring the substrate from the one or more chemical vapor deposition process chambers into the second transfer chamber;

transferring the substrate from the second transfer chamber into the first transfer chamber;

transferring the substrate form the first transfer chamber into one or more physical vapor deposition process chambers of the same substrate processing system without breaking vacuum;

depositing the one or more metal-containing layers on the surface of the one or more silicon-containing layers by the one or more physical vapor deposition process chambers;

transferring the substrate from the one or more physical vapor deposition process chambers into the first transfer chamber;

transferring the substrate from the first transfer chamber into the first load lock chamber; and

unloading the substrate from the first load lock chamber of the substrate processing system.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the substrate is transferred into the one or more chemical vapor deposition process chambers using a vacuum robot positioned in the second transfer chamber and adapted to be rotably movable among the one or more chemical vapor deposition process chambers.

24. The method of claim 22, further comprising transferring the substrate from the first transfer chamber through a second load lock chamber into the second transfer chamber, and transferring the substrate from the second transfer chamber through the second load lock chamber into the first transfer chamber.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the second load lock chamber further comprises one or more substrate transfer shuttle mechanisms.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein the first transfer chamber is a shuttle chamber comprising one or more substrate transfer shuttle mechanisms.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein at least one of the one or more substrate transfer shuttle mechanisms is also coupled to a chamber selected from the group consisting of at least one of the one or more physical vapor deposition process chambers, the first load lock chamber, the second load lock chamber, and combinations thereof.