CVD APPARATUS WITH MULTI-ZONE THICKNESS CONTROL
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Abstract
The present disclosure relates to a chemical vapor deposition apparatus and associated methods. In some embodiments, the CVD apparatus has a vacuum chamber and a gas import having a gas import axis through which a process gas is imported into the vacuum chamber and being arranged near an upper region of the vacuum chamber. At least one exhaust port is arranged near a bottom region of the vacuum chamber. The CVD apparatus also has a shower head arranged under the gas import having a plurality of holes formed there through with at least two different diameters or densities. The shower head redistributes the process gas to form a precursor material with an uneven thickness that matches a remove profile of a subsequent CMP process. As a result, planarity of the formed layer after the CMP process is improved.
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Citations
28 Claims
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1-5. -5. (canceled)
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6. A method of chemical vapor deposition (CVD), comprising:
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determining a CMP remove profile of a chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) process; guiding a process gas through a block plate, the block plate having a plurality of apertures with smaller density or smaller dimensions in a central region than an edge region, wherein the uneven arrangement of the plurality of apertures corrects uneven accumulation of the process gas; guiding the process gas out from the block plate through a shower head, the shower head being spatially separated from the block plate and having multiple control zones where holes are unevenly distributed to direct the process gas to have an uneven distribution from the multiple control zones; depositing a precursor material onto a semiconductor substrate according to the determined CMP remove profile, such that the deposited precursor material has a thickness profile that matches the CMP remove profile; and performing the CMP process to the precursor material to form a dielectric or metal layer with a planar surface. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 26, 27)
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10. (canceled)
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15. A method of forming a planar dielectric layer over a semiconductor substrate, comprising:
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providing a CMP remove profile of a CMP process; applying a process gas into a vacuum chamber from a gas import arranged near an upper region of the vacuum chamber; guiding the process gas downstream the vacuum chamber through a shower head arranged under the gas import, where the process gas is redirected to be laterally unevenly distributed under the shower head; depositing the process gas onto the semiconductor substrate arranged between the shower head and an exhaust port arranged near a bottom region of the vacuum chamber to form a dielectric material, such that the deposited dielectric material has an uneven thickness profile from a center region to an edge region of the semiconductor substrate as a result of uneven distribution of the process gas; and performing a chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) process to the deposited dielectric material such that the dielectric material is polished to form a dielectric layer with a substantially planar top surface; wherein the uneven thickness profile of the deposited dielectric material matches the CMP remove profile of the CMP process. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 28)
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16. (canceled)
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21. A method, comprising:
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applying a process gas into a vacuum chamber from a gas import arranged near an upper region of the vacuum chamber; guiding the process gas downstream the vacuum chamber through a shower head arranged under the gas import, where the process gas is redirected to be laterally unevenly distributed under the shower head, wherein a density of the process gas increases from a center region to a peripheral region of the vacuum chamber; depositing the process gas onto a first semiconductor substrate arranged between the shower head and an exhaust port arranged near a bottom region of the vacuum chamber to form a precursor material with an uneven thickness profile as a result of uneven distribution of the process gas; and performing a chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) process to the uneven thickness profile to form a substantially planar top surface, wherein the uneven thickness profile matches a CMP remove profile of the CMP process; wherein the shower head has multiple control zones each having a plurality of holes disposed through the shower head, and an outer control zone of the multiple control zones has holes with an average diameter about 4% to about 8% greater than that of an inner control zone abutting the outer control zone. - View Dependent Claims (22, 24, 25)
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23. (canceled)
Specification