Treatment processes for a batch ALD reactor

• US 20070065578A1
• Filed: 09/21/2005
• Published: 03/22/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Applied Materials Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Applied Materials Incorporated
• Inventors: McDougall, Brendan
• Application Number:
  US11/232,455
• Publication Number:
  US 20070065578A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 427/248.100
• CPC Class Codes: C23C 16/4404 Coatings or surface treatment on the inside of the reaction chamber or on parts thereof
• CPC Class Codes: C23C 16/4408 by purging residual gases from the reaction chamber or gas lines
• CPC Class Codes: C23C 16/45527 characterized by the ALD cycle, e.g. different flows or temperatures during half-reactions, unusual pulsing sequence, use of precursor mixtures or auxiliary reactants or activations
• CPC Class Codes: C23C 16/45546 specially adapted for a substrate stack in the ALD reactor

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention provide treatment processes to reduce substrate contamination during a fabrication process within a vapor deposition chamber. A treatment process may be conducted before, during or after a vapor deposition process, such as an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process. In one example of an ALD process, a process cycle, containing an intermediate treatment step and a predetermined number of ALD cycles, is repeated until the deposited material has a desired thickness. The chamber and substrates may be exposed to an inert gas, an oxidizing gas, a nitriding gas, a reducing gas or plasmas thereof during the treatment processes. In some examples, the treatment gas contains ozone, water, ammonia, nitrogen, argon or hydrogen. In one example, a process for depositing a hafnium oxide material within a batch process chamber includes a pretreatment step, an intermediate step during an ALD process and a post-treatment step.

Claims

1. A method for forming a material on a substrate within a process chamber, comprising:

exposing a process chamber to a pretreatment process;

exposing at least one substrate within the process chamber to an ALD process comprising;

exposing the at least one substrate sequentially to at least two chemical precursors during an ALD cycle;

repeating the ALD cycle for a predetermined number of cycles; and

conducting a treatment process after each predetermined number of cycles; and

exposing the process chamber to a post-treatment process.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the process chamber is a batch process chamber.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least one substrate is a plurality of substrates containing 25 substrates or more.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the plurality of substrates contains about 50 substrates or more.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the plurality of substrates contains about 100 substrates.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the pretreatment process and the post-treatment process each comprises a treatment gas independently selected from the group consisting of an inert gas, an oxidizing gas, a nitriding gas, a reducing gas, plasmas thereof, derivatives thereof and combinations thereof.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the pretreatment process and the post-treatment process each comprise a treatment gas independently selected from the group consisting of ozone, water, ammonia, nitrogen, argon, hydrogen, plasmas thereof, derivatives thereof and combinations thereof.

8. A method for forming a material on a substrate within a process chamber, comprising:

exposing a batch chamber to a pretreatment process;

exposing a plurality of substrates within the batch process chamber to an ALD process for forming a material on the substrates, wherein the ALD process comprises;

exposing the substrates sequentially to a first chemical precursor and a second chemical precursor during an ALD cycle; and

repeating the ALD cycle to form a layer of the material having a predetermined thickness;

conducting at least one treatment process during the ALD process; and

exposing the process chamber to a post-treatment process.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the at least one treatment process is conducted after a predetermined number of ALD cycles.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one treatment process and the predetermined number of ALD cycles are repeated during a process cycle.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the process cycle is repeated to form the material.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the plurality of substrates contains about 25 substrates or more.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the pretreatment process and the post-treatment process each comprise a treatment gas independently selected from the group consisting of ozone, water, ammonia, nitrogen, argon, hydrogen, plasmas thereof, derivatives thereof and combinations thereof.

14. A method for forming a material on a substrate within a process chamber, comprising:

exposing a process chamber to a pretreatment process;

exposing a plurality of substrates within the process chamber to a deposition process for forming a material on the substrates;

conducting at least one treatment process during the deposition process; and

exposing the process chamber to a post-treatment process.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the process chamber is a batch process chamber for a vapor deposition process.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the process chamber is an ALD process chamber and the vapor deposition process contains an ALD cycle.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the at least one treatment process is conducted after a predetermined number of ALD cycles.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the at least one treatment process and the predetermined number of ALD cycles are repeated during a process cycle.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the process cycle is repeated to form the material.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the plurality of substrates contains about 25 substrates or more.

21. The method of claim 14, wherein the pretreatment process and the post-treatment process each comprise a treatment gas independently selected from the group consisting of ozone, water, ammonia, nitrogen, argon, hydrogen, plasmas thereof, derivatives thereof and combinations thereof.

22. A method for forming a material on a substrate within a process chamber, comprising:

exposing a batch process chamber to a pretreatment process;

exposing a plurality of substrates within the batch process chamber to an ALD process for forming a hafnium-containing material on the substrates, wherein the ALD process comprises;

exposing the substrates sequentially to a hafnium precursor and an oxidizing gas during an ALD cycle; and

repeating the ALD cycle to form a hafnium-containing layer having a predetermined thickness; and

conducting at least one treatment process during the ALD process.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the at least one treatment process is conducted after a predetermined number of ALD cycles.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the at least one treatment process and the predetermined number of ALD cycles are repeated during a process cycle.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the process cycle is repeated to form the material.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein the plurality of substrates contains about 25 substrates or more.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the pretreatment process and a post-treatment process each comprise a treatment gas independently selected from the group consisting of ozone, water, ammonia, nitrogen, argon, hydrogen, plasmas thereof, derivatives thereof and combinations thereof.