Examples of a substrate treatment apparatus includes a chamber, a substrate support stage located inside the chamber, an elevation device that moves the substrate support stage up and down, a gate valve provided between the chamber and an adjacent chamber that is adjacent to the chamber, and a chamber state controller including a processor and a memory configured to cause the processor to execute a program stored in the memory, or including a dedicated circuitry, to move the elevation device and the gate valve before a next substrate treatment is performed in the chamber, in a state in which no substrate is present in the chamber.

Embodiments herein are generally directed to methods of forming high aspect ratio metal contacts and/or interconnect features, e.g., tungsten features, in a semiconductor device. Often, conformal deposition of tungsten in a high aspect ratio opening results in a seam and/or void where the outward growth of tungsten from one or more walls of the opening meet. Thus, the methods set forth herein provide for a desirable bottom up tungsten bulk fill to avoid the formation of seams and/or voids in the resulting interconnect features, and provide an improved contact metal structure and method of forming the same. In some embodiments, an improved overburden layer or overburden layer structure is formed over the field region of the substrate to enable the formation of a contact or interconnect structure that has improved characteristics over conventionally formed contacts or interconnect structures.

Provided is a plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) process for depositing etch-resistant SiOCN films. These films provide improved growth rate, improved step coverage and excellent etch resistance to wet etchants and post-deposition plasma treatments containing O.sub.2 and NH.sub.3 co-reactants. This PEALD process relies on one or more precursors reacting in tandem with the plasma exposure to deposit the etch-resistant thin-films of SiOCN. The films display excellent resistance to wet etching with dilute aqueous HF solutions, both after deposition and after post-deposition plasma treatment(s). Accordingly, these films are expected to display excellent stability towards post-deposition fabrication steps utilized during device manufacturing and build.

A method of manufacturing a support pedestal for use in semiconductor processing includes applying a protective layer on a conductive member of the support pedestal with an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process. The support pedestal has a support plate bonded to a tubular shaft. The support plate has a substrate, an electric element embedded in the substrate, and a conductive member connected to the electric element, and the tubular shaft defines an internal chamber. The ALD process introducing first precursors into the chamber of the tubular shaft to form a first monolayer on the conductive member, and introducing second precursors into the chamber of the tubular shaft to form a second monolayer on the first monolayer.

Silicon-containing films, such as silicon oxide films, having high quality are deposited on semiconductor substrates using reactions of silicon-containing precursors in high temperature ALD processes. In some embodiments, provided precursors are suitable for deposition of silicon-containing films at temperatures of at least about 500° C., such as greater than about 550° C. For example, silicon oxide can be deposited at high temperature by a reaction of the silicon-containing precursor with an oxygen-containing reactant (e.g., O.sub.3 O.sub.2, H.sub.2O) on a substrate's surface. In some implementations, the suitable precursor includes at least one silicon-silicon bond, at least one leaving group (e.g., a halogen), and, optionally, at least one electron-donating group (e.g., an alkyl). The precursors are suitable, in some implementations, for both thermal ALD and for PEALD. In some embodiments, a single precursor is used in both thermal ALD and in PEALD during deposition of a single silicon oxide film.

A method for selectively depositing an amorphous silicon film on a substrate comprising a metallic nitride surface and a metallic oxide surface is disclosed. The method may include; providing a substrate within a reaction chamber, heating the substrate to a deposition temperature, contacting the substrate with silicon iodide precursor, and selectively depositing the amorphous silicon film on the metallic nitride surface relative to the metallic oxide surface. Semiconductor device structures including an amorphous silicon film deposited by selective deposition methods are also disclosed.

Layered coating applications for sensing telemetry are provided. An example method can include depositing an optical waveguide on an inner surface of a wellbore tool, the optical waveguide including a first layer of low refractive-index material, a second layer of high refractive-index material applied to a first surface of the first layer, and a third layer of low refractive-index material applied to a second surface of the second layer; configuring non-uniformities at one or more locations of the optical waveguide, the non-uniformities configured to reflect or scatter light at angles relative to a site of interaction between the light and the non-uniformities; determining a reflection and/or transmission pattern of light propagated through the optical waveguide and reflected or scattered by the non-uniformities; and based on the reflection and/or transmission pattern of the light, determining one or more conditions associated with of the wellbore tool.

A deposition method includes (a) forming a film including silicon (Si), oxygen (O), and nitrogen (N) on a substrate; and (b) supplying a plasma generating gas including Ar gas and exposing the substrate having the film formed thereon to a plasma generated from the plasma generating gas, wherein a concentration of the nitrogen in the film is adjusted by switching to including a nitriding gas in the plasma generating gas or switching to not including the nitriding gas in the plasma generating gas.

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 gap filling process by means of a plasma-enhanced deposition process. 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 substrate processing method for gap-filling a recess between a first protrusion and a second protrusion of a pattern structure includes: changing a profile of a layer formed on the pattern structure, wherein the changing of the profile of the layer includes: in an upper area, increasing a width of the recess to suppress formation of a void in the upper area; and, in a lower area, reducing the width of the recess to contact the layer, thereby inducing formation of a void under the lower area, and thus allows a position of the void to be adjusted.