Electrically- and chemically-active adlayers for plasma electrodes
First Claim
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1. A system for forming a thin film on a substrate using a plasma to activate film deposition process from at least one gaseous precursor, the system comprising:
- a reaction space which is, when the system is in use, supplied with a precursor gas and provisioned with the substrate; and
a plasma generator fluidly coupled with the reaction space and operative to generate in a plasma generation region a plasma from at least a portion of the precursor gas and having at least one plasma electrode including a non-native electrically conductive adlayer exhibiting property characteristics that cause the adlayer to be substantially conserved and chemically active with at least one of the gases present within the plasma generation region.
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Abstract
A system for forming a thin film on a substrate uses a plasma to activate at least one gaseous precursor in a plasma generator fluidly coupled with a reaction space. The plasma generator is operative to generate a plasma from at least a portion of the precursor gas with at least one pair of plasma electrodes, one plasma electrode having a non-native electrically conductive adlayer exhibiting property characteristics that cause the adlayer to be substantially conserved and chemically active with at least one of the gases present within the plasma generation region.
18 Citations
29 Claims
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1. A system for forming a thin film on a substrate using a plasma to activate film deposition process from at least one gaseous precursor, the system comprising:
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a reaction space which is, when the system is in use, supplied with a precursor gas and provisioned with the substrate; and a plasma generator fluidly coupled with the reaction space and operative to generate in a plasma generation region a plasma from at least a portion of the precursor gas and having at least one plasma electrode including a non-native electrically conductive adlayer exhibiting property characteristics that cause the adlayer to be substantially conserved and chemically active with at least one of the gases present within the plasma generation region. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method of depositing a thin film on a substrate, the method comprising:
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provisioning a reaction space with a substrate; forming a layer of a first precursor on an active region of the substrate; removing non-chemisorbed amounts of the first precursor from the layer until no more than chemisorbed first precursor remains on the active region; supplying, with a second precursor gas, a plasma generator having a plasma electrode including a non-native electrically conductive adlayer exposed to the second precursor gas, the adlayer exhibiting property characteristics that cause the non-native electrically conductive adlayer to be substantially conserved and chemically active with the second precursor gas present within the plasma generator; using the plasma generator, generating a plasma using at least a portion of the second precursor gas to thereby form radicals from the second precursor gas; and after removing non-chemisorbed amounts of the first precursor from the active region, exposing the active region to the radicals to thereby form a thin film on the substrate. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. A system for forming a thin film on a substrate using a plasma to activate a film deposition process from at least one gaseous precursor, the system comprising:
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means for forming a layer of a first precursor on an active region of the substrate; means for removing non-chemisorbed amounts of the first precursor from the layer until no more than chemisorbed first precursor remains on the active region; means for supplying a plasma generator with a second precursor gas, the plasma generator having a plasma electrode including a non-native electrically conductive adlayer exposed to a second precursor gas, the adlayer exhibiting property characteristics that cause the non-native electrically conductive adlayer to be substantially conserved and chemically active with the second precursor gas present within the plasma generator to thereby form radicals from the second precursor gas; and means for exposing the active region to the radicals after the non-chemisorbed amounts of the first precursor have been removed from the active region, to thereby form a thin film on the substrate. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29)
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Specification