Methods and systems for forming a structure including a silicon carbide layer and structures formed using the methods and systems are disclosed. Exemplary methods include providing a silicon carbide precursor to the reaction chamber, forming a plasma within the reaction chamber to form an initially flowable, viscous silicon carbide material on a surface of the substrate, wherein the initially viscous carbon material becomes the silicon carbide layer. Exemplary methods can include use of a silicon carbide precursor that includes a carbon-carbon triple bond and/or use of a relatively low plasma power density (e.g., less than 3 W/cm.sup.2).

Low-flow tungsten chemical vapor deposition (CVD) techniques described herein provide substantially uniform deposition of tungsten on a semiconductor substrate. In some implementations, a flow of a processing vapor is provided to a CVD processing chamber such that a flow rate of tungsten hexafluoride in the processing vapor results in the tungsten layer being grown at a slower rate than a higher flow rate of the tungsten hexafluoride to promote substantially uniform growth of the tungsten layer. In this way, the low-flow tungsten CVD techniques may be used to achieve similar surface uniformity performance to an atomic layer deposition (ALD) while being a faster deposition process relative to ALD (e.g., due to the lower deposition rate and large quantity of alternating processing cycles of ALD). This reduces the likelihood of defect formation in the tungsten layer while increasing the throughput of semiconductor device processing for the semiconductor substrate (and other semiconductor substrates).

Systems and methods may be used to produce coated components. Exemplary semiconductor chamber components may include an aluminum alloy comprising nickel and may be characterized by a surface. The surface may include a corrosion resistant coating. The corrosion resistant coating may include a conformal layer and a non-metal layer. The conformal layer may extend about the semiconductor chamber component. The non-metal oxide layer may extend over a surface of the conformal layer. The non-metal oxide layer may be characterized by an amorphous microstructure having a hardness of from about 300 HV to about 10,000 HV. The non-metal oxide layer may also be characterized by an sp.sup.2 to sp.sup.3 hybridization ratio of from about 0.01 to about 0.5 and a hydrogen content of from about 1 wt. % to about 35 wt. %.

A bioscaffold comprising a graphene matrix for use in cellular therapy is disclosed. In particular, a bioscaffold having a coating of dexamethasone on a three-dimensional graphene matrix is provided, wherein the bioscaffold elutes dexamethasone to reduce inflammatory responses following implantation of the bioscaffold in a subject. Having the dexamethasone released locally in the vicinity of the bioscaffold avoids the systemic side effects from conventional intravenous delivery while allowing the dexamethasone to modulate the inflammatory milieu within the transplantation microenvironment.

Described herein are methods of filling features with tungsten, and related systems and apparatus, involving inhibition of tungsten nucleation. In some embodiments, the methods involve selective inhibition along a feature profile. Methods of selectively inhibiting tungsten nucleation can include exposing the feature to a direct or remote plasma. In certain embodiments, the substrate can be biased during selective inhibition. Process parameters including bias power, exposure time, plasma power, process pressure and plasma chemistry can be used to tune the inhibition profile. The methods described herein can be used to fill vertical features, such as in tungsten vias, and horizontal features, such as vertical NAND (VNAND) wordlines. The methods may be used for both conformal fill and bottom-up/inside-out fill. Examples of applications include logic and memory contact fill, DRAM buried wordline fill, vertically integrated memory gate/wordline fill, and 3-D integration using through-silicon vias.

Provided is a SiC-coated carbon composite material including a graphite base material and a CVD-SiC coating covering the graphite base material. A porosity of a core part of the graphite base material is 12 to 20%, and a SiC-infiltrated layer extending from the CVD-SiC coating is included in a periphery of the core part of the graphite base material. The SiC-infiltrated layer is constituted of a plurality of regions arranged such that Si content becomes smaller stepwise in an order from a first surface on the CVD-SiC coating side toward a second surface on the graphite base material side.

Provided are apparatuses and methods for performing deposition and etch processes in an integrated tool. An apparatus may include a plasma processing chamber that is a capacitively-coupled plasma reactor, and the plasma processing chamber can include a showerhead that includes a top electrode and a pedestal that includes a bottom electrode. The apparatus may be configured with an RF hardware configuration so that an RF generator may power the top electrode in a deposition mode and power the bottom electrode in an etch mode. In some implementations, the apparatus can include one or more switches so that at least an HFRF generator is electrically connected to the showerhead in a deposition mode, and the HFRF generator and an LFRF generator is electrically connected to the pedestal and the showerhead is grounded in the etch mode.

Turbine engine (80) components, such as blades (92), vanes (104, 106), ring segment 110 abradable surfaces 120, or transitions (85), have furcated engineered groove features (EGFs) (403, 404, 418, 509, 511, 512) that cut into the outer surface of the component's thermal barrier coating (TBC). In some embodiments, the EGF planform pattern defines adjoining outer hexagons (560, 640, 670, 690, 710). In some embodiments, the EGF pattern further defines within each outer hexagon (560, 640, 670, 690, 710) a planform pattern of adjoining inner polygons (570, 580, 590, 600, 610, 680, 682, 700, 702, 704, 705, 720). At least three respective groove segments (509, 511, 512) within the EGF pattern (506, 507, 508) converge at each respective outer hexagonal vertex (510, 564) or inner polygonal vertex (574, 564, 604, 614) in a multifurcated pattern, so that crack-inducing stresses are attenuated in cascading fashion, as the stress (σ.sub.A) is furcated (σ.sub.B, σ.sub.C) at each successive vertex juncture.

A method of depositing a silicon film on a recess formed in a surface of a substrate is provided. The substrate is placed on a rotary table in a vacuum vessel, so as to pass through first, second, and third processing regions in the vacuum vessel. An interior of the vacuum vessel is set to a first temperature capable of breaking an Si—H bond. In the first processing region, Si.sub.2H.sub.6 gas having a temperature less than the first temperature is supplied to form an SiH.sub.3 molecular layer on its surface. In the second processing region, a silicon atomic layer is exposed on the surface of the substrate, by breaking the Si—H bond in the SiH.sub.3 molecular layer. In the third processing region, by anisotropic etching, the silicon atomic layer on an upper portion of an inner wall of the recess is selectively removed.

A plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition apparatus for depositing a lithium (Li)-based film on a surface of a substrate includes a reaction chamber, in which the substrate is disposed; a first source supply configured to supply a Li source material into the reaction chamber; a second source supply configured to supply phosphor (P) and oxygen (O) source materials and a nitrogen (N) source material into the reaction chamber; a power supply configured to supply power into the reaction chamber to generate plasma in the reaction chamber; and a controller configured to control the power supply to turn on or off generation of the plasma.