Described herein are methods of filling features with tungsten and related apparatus. The methods described herein involve deposition of a tungsten nucleation layer prior to deposition of a bulk layer. The methods involve multiple atomic layer deposition (ALD) cycles. According to various embodiments, both a boron-containing reducing agent and silicon-reducing agent may be pulses during a single cycle to react with a tungsten-containing precursor and form a tungsten film.

A method of depositing a metal-containing material is disclosed. The method can include use of cyclic deposition techniques, such as cyclic chemical vapor deposition and atomic layer deposition. The metal-containing material can include intermetallic compounds. A structure including the metal-containing material and a system for forming the material are also disclosed.

A method of depositing a metal-containing material is disclosed. The method can include use of cyclic deposition techniques, such as cyclic chemical vapor deposition and atomic layer deposition. The metal-containing material can include intermetallic compounds. A structure including the metal-containing material and a system for forming the material are also disclosed.

Provided is a process for the rapid deposition of highly conformal molybdenum- or tungsten-containing films onto microelectronic device substrates under vapor deposition conditions. In the practice of the invention, a first nucleation step is conducted, while utilizing a generally lower concentration of metal precursor than would ordinarily be utilized in the reaction zone. This utilization of lower metal precursor concentrations can be achieved by way of regulating the temperature of the ampoule (housing the precursor), the concentration of the precursor, pressure in the reaction zone, and the duration of the pulse. In this fashion, a generally lower concentration is utilized to form a nucleation layer of greater than or equal to about 3 Å, or up to about 9, 15, or 25 Å, at which time, the conditions for introducing the precursor are advantageously changed and the concentration of the precursor in the reaction zone is increased for the purpose of bulk deposition.

A method of depositing a metal-containing material is disclosed. The method can include use of cyclic deposition techniques, such as cyclic chemical vapor deposition and atomic layer deposition. The metal-containing material can include intermetallic compounds. A structure including the metal-containing material and a system tor forming the material are also disclosed.

A method of depositing a metal-containing material is disclosed. The method can include use of cyclic deposition techniques, such as cyclic chemical vapor deposition and atomic layer deposition. The metal-containing material can include intermetallic compounds. A structure including the metal-containing material and a system tor forming the material are also disclosed.

Disclosed are methods and systems for filling a gap. An exemplary method comprises providing a substrate to a reaction chamber. The substrate comprises the gap. The method further comprises forming a convertible layer on the substrate and exposing the substrate to a conversion reactant. Accordingly, at least a part of the convertible layer is converted into a gap filling fluid. The gap filling fluid at least partially fills the gap. The methods and systems are useful, for example, in the field of integrated circuit manufacture.

Disclosed are methods and systems for filling a gap. An exemplary method comprises providing a substrate to a reaction chamber. The substrate comprises the gap. The method further comprises forming a convertible layer on the substrate and exposing the substrate to a conversion reactant. Accordingly, at least a part of the convertible layer is converted into a gap filling fluid. The gap filling fluid at least partially fills the gap. The methods and systems are useful, for example, in the field of integrated circuit manufacture.

A method of detecting failure causes in semiconductor processing systems may include receiving an indication of a failure in a semiconductor processing system and providing the indication of the failure as a query to a network representing the semiconductor processing system. The network may include nodes representing on-wafer effects and component functions, and relationships between the nodes that represent causal dependencies between the component functions and the on-wafer effects. The method may also include calculating a change in probabilities assigned to nodes representing the component functions resulting from the query, and generating an output indicating a probability of at least one of the component functions as a cause of the failure.

A method for preparing an oxygen-free passivated titanium or titanium-alloy powder product by means of gas-solid fluidization is provided. The new method includes placing the metal halide and the titanium powder which meet formula requirements into a gasifier and a fluidized bed reactor respectively; heating the gasifier to gasify the metal halide, and introducing dry argon and halide gas into the fluidized bed reactor; opening the fluidized bed, heating the fluidized bed, fluidizing the titanium powder after the introduction of the argon and the metal halide gas, and cooling the product to obtain the titanium powder subjected to oxygen-free passivation using metal chloride; molding the oxygen-free passivated titanium powder into a green body with powder metallurgy technology; and sintering the green body in vacuum or argon atmosphere according to the molding technology, and after temperature rise treatment, performing a densification sintering operation to obtain a high-performance titanium product component.