AVS 61st International Symposium & Exhibition
    Thin Film Thursday Sessions
       Session TF+PS-ThM

Paper TF+PS-ThM10
A Novel Gap Fill Technology to Address the Current and Future Scaling Challenges of the Semiconductor Industry

Thursday, November 13, 2014, 11:00 am, Room 307

Session: Advanced CVD and Chemical Vapor Infiltration Methods
Presenter: Jingmei Liang, Applied Materials Inc.
Authors: A. Mallick, Applied Materials Inc.
J. Liang, Applied Materials Inc.
B. Underwood, Applied Materials Inc.
K. Thadani, Applied Materials Inc.
N. Ingle, Applied Materials Inc.
T. Mandrekar, Applied Materials Inc.
Correspondent: Click to Email
Gap fill has been a continuous challenge for the semiconductor industry driving innovation in the field of chemical vapor deposition. Applied Materials has continuously met this challenge by developing and refining CVD technologies to address the challenges of void-free gap fill in features of narrowing opening dimension and increasing aspect ratio. Technologies including Applied’s HARP™ sub-atmospheric CVD and Ultima™ high density plasma established themselves as workhorses of the semiconductor industry. These technologies enabled dielectric materials including silicon dioxide, nitrides, carbides, and carbon in narrow gap. While these technologies see continued use in the manufacture of Logic and Memory device at <20nm node and below, gap fill of the narrowest and highest aspect ratio features required a new technical approach. As structure CD drops below 30nm, the sidewall angle approaches or exceeds 90° presenting a shape that promotes void or seam formation with conventional gap fill approaches including CVD and ALD.

To address these challenges Applied Materials has developed a new CVD technology we call FCVD™ to enable synthesis of high quality dielectric films including silicon oxides, silicon nitrides, silicon carbo-nitrides, silicon, low-k dielectrics, and carbon with a mechanism of film growth that promotes void-free fill irrespective of structure dimension and shape; this technology demonstrates capability to fill re-entrant structures with opening size <5nm and aspect ratio >20, flexibility to address multiple material systems and has been productized to address volume manufacturing requirements. In this paper we will demonstrate that we can achieve a void-free, profile-insensitive gap fill with multiple materials in a CVD reactor.