Vapor deposition of metal carbide films
First Claim
1. An atomic layer deposition (ALD) process for growing a metal carbide film over a substrate in a reaction space, comprising contacting the substrate with spatially and temporally separated vapor phase pulses of a metal source chemical, a reducing agent and a carbon-containing compound.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Methods of forming metal carbide thin films are provided. According to preferred embodiments, metal carbide thin films are formed in an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process by alternately and sequentially contacting a substrate in a reaction space with spatially and temporally separated vapor phase pulses of a metal source chemical, a reducing agent and a carbon source chemical. The reducing agent is preferably selected from the group consisting of excited species of hydrogen and silicon-containing compounds.
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Citations
65 Claims
- 1. An atomic layer deposition (ALD) process for growing a metal carbide film over a substrate in a reaction space, comprising contacting the substrate with spatially and temporally separated vapor phase pulses of a metal source chemical, a reducing agent and a carbon-containing compound.
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21. An atomic layer deposition (ALD) process for growing a metal carbide thin film on a substrate in a reaction space, comprising the sequential steps of:
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a) contacting the substrate with a vapor phase pulse of a metal source chemical; b) removing excess metal source chemical from the reaction space; c) contacting the substrate with a vapor phase pulse of a reducing agent; d) removing excess reducing agent from the reaction space; e) contacting the substrate with a vapor phase pulse of a carbon-containing compound; and f) removing any excess carbon-containing compound from the reaction space. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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37. An atomic layer deposition (ALD) process for growing a metal carbide thin film on a substrate in a reaction space, comprising the sequential steps of:
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a) contacting the substrate with a vapor phase pulse of a metal source chemical; b) contacting the substrate with a vapor phase pulse of a reducing agent; and c) contacting the substrate with a vapor phase pulse of a carbon-containing compound. - View Dependent Claims (38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53)
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54. A plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) process for growing a metal carbide thin film on a substrate, comprising alternately and sequentially contacting a substrate in a reaction space with temporally and spatially separated vapor phase pulses of:
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a metal source material that forms no more than about one monolayer of a metal thin film on an exposed surface of the substrate; excited species of hydrogen (H2) that reduce the metal thin film to an elemental metal thin film; and a carbon source material that forms no more than about one monolayer of a metal carbide thin film, wherein any excess metal source material, excited species of hydrogen and carbon source material are removed from the reaction space after each of said pulses. - View Dependent Claims (55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65)
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Specification