Methods and systems for filling a gap comprised in the substrate with a gap filling fluid. The gap filling fluid is formed in a plasma with a first precursor and a second precursor.

There is provided a method of filling one or more gaps by providing the substrate in a reaction chamber and introducing a first reactant to the substrate with a first dose, thereby forming no more than about one monolayer by the first reactant on a first area; introducing a second reactant to the substrate with a second dose, thereby forming no more than about one monolayer by the second reactant on a second area of the surface, wherein the first and the second areas overlap in an overlap area where the first and second reactants react and leave an initially unreacted area where the first and the second areas do not overlap; and, introducing a third reactant to the substrate with a third dose, the third reactant reacting with the first or second reactant remaining on the initially unreacted area.

Disclosed herein is a chemical vapor infiltration method including flowing ceramic precursors through a preform and depositing a matrix material on the preform at a first gas infiltration pressure, increasing the gas filtration pressure to a second gas infiltration pressure, and lowering the gas infiltration pressure to a third gas infiltration pressure which is intermediate to the first and second gas infiltration pressures.

A method and apparatus for processing a substrate are described herein. The methods and apparatus described enable the raising and lowering of a shadow ring within a process chamber either simultaneously with or separately from a plurality of substrate lift pins. The shadow ring is raised and lowered using a shadow ring lift assembly and may be raised to a pre-determined height above the substrate during a radical treatment operation. The shadow ring lift assembly may also raise and lower the plurality of substrate lift pins to enable both the shadow ring and the substrate lift pins to be raised to a transfer position when the substrate is being transferred into or out of the process chamber.

A method of forming a structure includes supporting a substrate within a reaction chamber of a semiconductor processing system, the substrate having a recess with a bottom surface and a sidewall surface extending upwards from the bottom surface of the recess. A film is deposited within the recess and onto the bottom surface and the sidewall surface of the recess, the film having a bottom segment overlaying the bottom surface of the recess and a sidewall segment deposited onto the sidewall surface of the recess. The sidewall segment of the film is removed while at least a portion bottom segment of the film is retained within the recess, the sidewall segment of the film removed from the sidewall surface more rapidly than removing the bottom segment of the film from the bottom surface of the recess. Semiconductor processing systems and structures formed using the method are also described.

Methods for forming a metal carbide liner in features formed in a substrate surface are described. Each of the features extends a distance into the substrate from the substrate surface and have a bottom and at least one sidewall. The methods include depositing a metal carbide liner in the feature of the substrate surface with a plurality of high-frequency ratio-frequency (HFRF) pulses. Semiconductor devices with the metal carbide liner and methods for filling gaps using the metal carbide liner are also described.

A composite nuclear reactor component comprises a support and a protective layer (2). The support contains a substrate (1) based on a metal. The substrate is coated with an interposed layer (3) positioned between the substrate (1) and the protective layer (2). The protective layer (2) is composed of a material which comprises amorphous chromium carbide. The nuclear reactor component provides for improved resistance to oxidation, hydriding, and/or migration of undesired material.

A method for processing a substrate includes: (a) exposing a substrate with a pattern formed on a surface thereof to a first reactive species in a chamber, thereby adsorbing the first reactive species onto the surface of the substrate; (b) exposing the substrate to plasma formed by a second reactive species in the chamber, thereby forming a film on the surface of the substrate; and (c) repeating a processing including (a) and (b) two or more times while changing a residence amount of the first reactive species at a time of starting (b).

The present disclosure provides a substrate processing method and a substrate processing apparatus that perform selective film formation. The substrate processing method includes: forming a silicon-containing film by repeating forming an adsorption layer on a substrate on which a pattern of a concave portion is formed by supplying a silicon-containing gas to the substrate and generating plasma of a reaction gas to cause the plasma to react with the adsorption layer; and etching the silicon-containing film, wherein the forming the silicon-containing film includes modifying at least one of the adsorption layer and the silicon-containing film by generating a He-containing plasma.

Provided herein are methods and apparatuses for controlling uniformity of processing at an edge region of a semiconductor wafer. In some embodiments, the methods include providing a backside inhibition gas as part of a deposition-inhibition-deposition (DID) sequence.