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.

A laminate that improves barrier properties of an atomic layer deposition film in spite of use of a substrate made of a polymer material, and provides a gas barrier film and a method of producing the same. The laminate includes: a substrate made a polymer material; an undercoat layer disposed on at least part of a surface of the substrate and made up of an inorganic material containing Ta; and an atomic layer deposition film disposed so as to cover a surface of the undercoat layer.

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.

A laminate that improves barrier properties of an atomic layer deposition film in spite of use of a substrate made of a polymer material, and provides a gas barrier film and a method of producing the same. The laminate includes: a substrate made a polymer material; an undercoat layer disposed on at least part of a surface of the substrate and made up of an inorganic material containing Ta; and an atomic layer deposition film disposed so as to cover a surface of the undercoat layer.

Methods for the formation of films comprising Si, C, O and N are provided. Certain methods involve sequential exposures of a hydroxide terminated substrate surface to a silicon precursor and an alcohol-amine to form a film with hydroxide terminations. Certain methods involved sequential exposures of hydroxide terminated substrate surface to a silicon precursor and a diamine to form a film with an amine terminated surface, followed by sequential exposures to a silicon precursor and a diol to form a film with a hydroxide terminated surface.

A power semiconductor device includes a semiconductor body; a first load terminal at the semiconductor body; and a second load terminal at the semiconductor body. The power semiconductor device is configured to conduct a load current between the first load terminal and the second load terminal. The first load terminal has a first side and a second side adjoining the semiconductor body. The first load terminal includes: at the first side, an atomic layer deposition (ALD) layer; at the second side, a base layer including copper; and between the ALD layer and the base layer, a coupling layer that includes copper-silicon-nitride (CuSiN).

Provided is a substrate processing method capable of filling a film in a gap structure without forming voids or seams in a gap, the substrate processing method including: a first step of forming a thin film on a structure including a gap by performing a first cycle including supplying a first reaction gas and supplying a second reaction gas to the structure a plurality of times; a second step of etching a portion of the thin film by supplying a fluorine-containing gas onto the thin film; a third step of supplying a hydrogen-containing gas onto the thin film; a fourth step of supplying an inhibiting gas to an upper portion of the gap; and a fifth step of forming a thin film by performing a second cycle including supplying the first reaction gas and supplying a second reaction gas onto the thin film a plurality of times.

A substrate processing method includes forming an adsorption layer on a substrate by supplying a silicon-containing gas to the substrate; performing a modification by generating plasma containing He; and generating plasma of a reaction gas to cause the plasma to react with the adsorption layer, wherein the forming the adsorption layer, the performing the modification, and the generating the plasma are repeated to form a silicon-containing film.

The current disclosure relates to deposition of a transition metal chalcogenide barrier layer. The method of depositing a transition metal chalcogenide barrier layer comprises providing a substrate having an opening into a reaction chamber, providing a transition metal precursor in the reaction chamber in vapor phase and providing an reactive chalcogen species in the reaction chamber. The method may be a plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition method. The disclosure further relates to an interconnect comprising a transition metal chalcogenide barrier layer.

Methods and related systems for topographically depositing a material on a substrate are disclosed. The substrate comprises a proximal surface and a gap feature. The gap feature comprises a sidewall and a distal surface. Exemplary methods comprise, in the given order: a step of positioning the substrate on a substrate support in a reaction chamber; a step of subjecting the substrate to a plasma pre-treatment; and, a step of selectively depositing a material on at least one of the proximal surface and the distal surface with respect to the sidewall. The step of subjecting the substrate to a plasma pre-treatment comprises exposing the substrate to at least one of fluorine-containing molecules, ions, and radicals.