Abstract:
A method for forming upon a substrate employed within a microelectronics fabrication a silicon nitride dielectric layer with attenuated defects and inhomogeneities. There is provided one or more substrates. There is then provided a reactor tube which is part of an apparatus suitable for providing various gases at elevated temperatures. There is then purged the reactor tube with an inert gas in a low temperature cycle purge (LTCP) step at a temperature below deposition temperature. There is then placed the substrate(s) within a reactor tube. There is then deposited a silicon nitride dielectric layer upon the substrate(s), employing silane and ammonia gases employing a low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) method. There is then purged the reaction tube at a temperature below the deposition temperature, followed by removal of the substrate carrier with attenuated formation of particulates and inhomogeneities within and about the silicon nitride layer and reaction tube.
Abstract:
A sputtering target is provided that includes a planar backing plate and a target material formed over the planar backing plate and including an uneven sputtering surface including thick portions and thin portions and configured in conjunction with a sputtering apparatus such as a magnetron sputtering tool with a fixed magnet arrangement. The uneven surface is designed in conjunction with the magnetic fields that will be produced by the magnet arrangement such that the thicker target portions are positioned at locations where target erosion occurs at a high rate. Also provided is the magnetron sputtering system and a method for utilizing the target with uneven sputtering surface such that the thickness across the target to become more uniform in time as the target is used.
Abstract:
A sputtering target is provided that includes a planar backing plate and a target material formed over the planar backing plate and including an uneven sputtering surface including thick portions and thin portions and configured in conjunction with a sputtering apparatus such as a magnetron sputtering tool with a fixed magnet arrangement. The uneven surface is designed in conjunction with the magnetic fields that will be produced by the magnet arrangement such that the thicker target portions are positioned at locations where target erosion occurs at a high rate. Also provided is the magnetron sputtering system and a method for utilizing the target with uneven sputtering surface such that the thickness across the target to become more uniform in time as the target is used.