Methods of producing metal-containing thin films with low impurity contents on a substrate by atomic layer deposition (ALD) are provided. The methods preferably comprise contacting a substrate with alternating and sequential pulses of a metal source chemical, a second source chemical and a deposition enhancing agent. The deposition enhancing agent is preferably selected from the group consisting of hydrocarbons, hydrogen, hydrogen plasma, hydrogen radicals, silanes, germanium compounds, nitrogen compounds, and boron compounds. In some embodiments, the deposition-enhancing agent reacts with halide contaminants in the growing thin film, improving film properties.

Provided is a method of processing a wafer, which is performed in a processing container of a plasma processing apparatus. This method is a plasma etching method performed on a porous film formed of SiOCH, and is a method of enabling the suppression of various types of deterioration such as an increase in the dielectric constant of the porous film. The wafer includes the porous film and a mask provided on the porous film. The method includes a process of generating a plasma of a first gas and a plasma of a second gas in the processing container and etching the porous film using the mask. The porous film contains SiOCH, and the first gas contains a fluorocarbon-based gas. The second gas contains GeF.sub.4 gas.

Provided is a method of forming a semiconductor device. The method includes providing a substrate; depositing a flowable dielectric material layer over the substrate; performing a wet annealing process and a dry annealing process to the flowable dielectric material layer. The wet annealing process includes a first portion followed by a second portion. The second portion is performed at a temperature above 850 degrees Celsius, and the first portion is performed at a temperature lower than that of the second portion and is performed for longer duration than the second portion. The dry annealing process is performed at a temperature at least 500 degrees Celsius.

Novel double- and triple-patterning methods are provided. The methods involve applying a shrinkable composition to a patterned template structure (e.g., a structure having lines) and heating the composition. The shrinkable composition is selected to possess properties that will cause it to shrink during heating, thus forming a conformal layer over the patterned template structure. The layer is then etched to leave behind pre-spacer structures, which comprise the features from the pattern with remnants of the shrinkable composition adjacent the feature sidewalls. The features are removed, leaving behind a doubled pattern. In an alternative embodiment, an extra etch step can be carried out prior to formation of the features on the template structure, thus allowing the pattern to be tripled rather than doubled.

Methods of forming semiconductor devices and features in semiconductor device structures include conducting an anti-spacer process to remove portions of a first mask material to form first openings extending in a first direction. Another anti-spacer process is conducted to remove portions of the first mask material to form second openings extending in a second direction at an angle to the first direction. Portions of a second mask material underlying the first mask material at intersections of the first openings and second openings are removed to form holes in the second mask material and to expose a substrate underlying the second mask material.

Techniques are disclosed for realizing a two-dimensional target lithography feature/pattern by decomposing (splitting) it into multiple unidirectional target features that, when aggregated, substantially (e.g., fully) represent the original target feature without leaving an unrepresented remainder (e.g., a whole-number quantity of unidirectional target features). The unidirectional target features may he arbitrarily grouped such that, within a grouping, all unidirectional target features share a common target width value. Where multiple such groupings are provided, individual groupings may or may not have the same common target width value. In some cases, a series of reticles is provided, each reticle having a mask pattern correlating to a grouping of unidirectional target features. Exposure of a photoresist material via the aggregated series of reticles substantially (e.g., fully) produces the original target feature/pattern. The pattern decomposition techniques may be integrated into any number of patterning processes, such as litho-freeze-litho-etch and litho-etch-litho-etch patterning processes.