Joe E Griffith

US Patent:

20090238998, Sep 24, 2009

Filed:

Mar 18, 2008

Appl. No.:

12/050373

Inventors:

MICHAEL W. STOWELL - Loveland CO, US
Nety Krishna - Sunnyvale CA, US
Ralf Hofmann - Soquel CA, US
Joe Griffith - San Jose CA, US

Assignee:

Applied Materials, Inc. - Santa Clara CA

International Classification:

H05H 1/30
C23C 16/511
H01L 21/3065

US Classification:

427575, 118723 AN, 15634541

Abstract:

Disclosed are systems for achieving improved film properties by introducing additional processing parameters, such as a movable position for the microwave source and pulsing power to the microwave source, and extending the operational ranges and processing windows with the assistance of the microwave source. A coaxial microwave antenna is used for radiating microwaves to assist in physical vapor deposition (PVD) or chemical vapor deposition (CVD) systems. The system may use a coaxial microwave antenna inside a processing chamber, with the antenna being movable between a substrate and a plasma source, such as a sputtering target, a planar capacitively generated plasma source, or an inductively coupled source. In a special case when only a microwave plasma source is present, the position of the microwave antenna is movable relative to a substrate. The coaxial microwave antenna adjacent to the plasma source can assist the ionization more homogeneously and allow substantially uniform deposition over large areas.