text:
The Hold Steady, Atmosphere in good company on new Coachella lineup
There's something special about theCoachella
festival, officially celebrating its 10th birthday this year with it's April 17 weekend lineup. Having attended in 2006 (deservedly known as"The Daft Punk year"
) and normally prone to festival anxiety, I can personally attest to the near tangible do-what-you-wanna vibe in the sweat-soaked desert air that many repeat Coachella goers say is what keeps them coming back year after year to the sprawling super-green acres of the Empire Polo Field. But Coachella's 3-day lineup of often-throwback headliners and its massive supporting cast of what's now in music makes Coachella unmissable to music lovers, last year seeing a most noteworthy performance by Prince (the "Purple Rain" Prince, not the "312" Prince).
Speaking of Minneapolis natives, this year's lineup features a couple more: The Hold Steady and Atmosphere, both touring late last year and making stops at First Avenue. Preceding them on the 2009 10th anniversary lineup are solo Beatle Paul McCartney (is it just me or is this a weird choice for this fest?), The Killers (meh) and The Cure (repeat Coachella performers). Could also quite do without Amy 'No really, I'm totally sober now' Winehouse. But wait! Look deeper inside the lineup at the artists sentenced to a smaller font and you'll find better things to be excited about: The Presets, Roni Size, Antony & the Johnsons (as well as his other project, Hercules & Love Affair), DJ Craze and DJ Klever, Fleet Foxes, Blitzen Trapper, Felix Da Housecat, Public Enemy, Bloody Beetroots and more. All of this begs the question: Who wouldn't want to dance themselves into a wicked sun stroke for three days on end in Indo? That's what we thought.
Feel free to share your opinions of the new lineup below.
Get the Music Newsletter
Keep your thumb on the local music scene each week with music news, trends, artist interviews and concert listings. We'll also send you special ticket offers and music deals.
In Case You Missed It
Popular Stories
Sponsor Content


text:
Since the guy had a fairly successful movie out this weekend, I'd be remiss to ignore Deadpool.
Three Deadpool Firsts, a Nostalgic Look Back
"New Mutants" #98: Yes, I still have my copy. No, it's not worth a thousand dollars. It's not as badly beaten up as I thought it was, but still not a desirable item in a market that's honestly saturated with copies at the moment. It's no 9.6 CGC, that's for sure. I read it far too much at the time for it to be pristine. As I recall, my first experiments in storing comics was to stack them in a pile in some kind of boxes my mother used to bring home from her office. (Wide envelopes? Copy paper? I wish I could remember.) There were no bags and boards for a few years yet at that point.
I jumped on "New Mutants" when Rob Liefeld started there for two reasons. First, Todd McFarlane was inking his covers, and McFarlane was my first art crush in comics. Second, I must have seen a "Marvel Age" interview with Liefeld that sounded interesting. I was just starting to get into the mutant books at that point, so it all made sense. "Marvel Age" was to me in 1989/1990 what the internet is to everyone today -- the one true source of truth for what's coming out next.
I ate it up. Liefeld's "New Mutants" and "X-Force" were top tier titles for me at the time, and I still have fond memories of them. That last page of "New Mutants" was as shocking as any comic book ending I've ever read. I love how it all fit together and how the universe expanded beyond it. I loved the characters and their costumes and the melodrama of it all. It was a great mutant title.
When there's a "Youngblood" movie someday, I can tell the story of calling the local comics shop every week asking if the first issue was out yet. (Actually, that's pretty much the whole story.)
I wrote more on "New Mutants" #98 - #100 in Pipeline back in 2013.
"Deadpool" #1: I jumped on this one only after the second issue came out. Reviews for it were positive on the old USENET rec.arts.comics.* newsgroups from some people whose taste I trusted. I was lucky that my local comics shop (Dewey's Comic City, Madison, NJ) had a copy of #1 still left on the shelf behind a copy of issue #2. I remember picking them both up that day and bringing them back with me to college where I read them between classes.
I reviewed the series back in April 2009, 12 years later. I may have reviewed them in an early pre-cursor to Pipeline, but my Google-fu is failing me tonight. Those old USENET archives are getting crustier and crustier.
"Deadpool: The Circle Chase" #1: This is one of the few Joe Madureira comics I have in my collection. Not that he ever did too many comics, mind you, but I wasn't reading "X-Men" during the "Age of Apocalypse" era. I did go back and buy a few of them out of curiosity, but Joe Mad is one of those art phases that passed me by.
I did own a page of original art from this series for a long time, though. I sold it a year or two back. It might have been the only page inked by Mark Farmer I've ever owned. It had a clear sheet that went over it with the markings on Zero's face. In the pre-Photoshop days, you literally used layers of paper instead of Photoshop's layers.
Here's a scan of that page, sans the top layer:
The thing that cracks me up is the numbers in the top margin. This is story page 12. If you count the ads in "Deadpool" #4, it's page 15. Yet the numbers written down and crossed out repeatedly at the top of the art indicate it's page 13, then 18, then 17. I have no idea where those numbers can from. Were they counting the cover and inside front cover age pages? Only then does 17 make sense.
Now, for the Deadpool-themed links:
- Editing is an art in Hollywood that receives far too little attention. Here's a video with the film's editor on what his job entails.
- For the truly geeky: Here's a video showing someone livecoding in CSS to create a Deadpool image. That's the kind of insanity I enjoy.
- Various artists offer their takes on the Merc with a Mouth.
- Comics Should Be Good! looked into the history of Deadpool's yellow word balloons and how they started. (Spoiler: "Deadpool" #1.) That kicked off a Twitter conversation where we learned that though Joe Rosen had started the outlined balloons -- and Chris Eliopoulos continued with them -- the letterers didn't color those in during the analog days. So the change from red to yellow balloon outlines is pretty arbitrary. It may have been a purely color palette decision by the colorist. (Do you choose a color to reflect Deadpool's costume? Or to complement it?)
- Comicraft started the yellow balloons in an era where every character was getting their own font and balloon style. Take a look back at the Kurt Busiek/George Perez "Avengers" to see that taken to an extreme. It was the style of the day that didn't last too long, but it stuck on Deadpool for whatever reason.
In this two-parter, the kids land in trouble in Italy and Jim Lee fills in on art duties.
Brandon Choi and Jim Lee are credited with the story on both issues. J. Scott Campbell's name is added in the second. There are two stories intertwined here:
The first story is what amounts to an introduction to DV8, a team that would go on to have its own spinoff series by Warren Ellis and Humberto Ramos a year later. We see the beginnings of that at the top of both issues, most notably in issue #7, when Ivana (she's baaaack!) sends them on a VR training mission. But that storyline doesn't pay off here. I'm guessing that it's the 'B' plot that will eventually rise up to be the 'A' plot in a future issue, the way Chris Claremont structured his "X-Men" tales for so long. (Denny O'Neill has written about this structuring of storylines for serialized comics, as well.) Claremont tended to tell those stories in much smaller chunks until they got to the main stage, though. This one took up too much space, leading to an overall unbalanced feeling to the story.
The second story -- the main plot -- has the team in Italy on their way home from their Coda Island adventure in previous issues. There, they get caught up in a fight against The Order of the Cross, an ancient secret organization in Italy dedicated to protecting the church from evil. It's like something straight out of a bandes dessinees album series, where religious organizations are the villains in much the way corporations are the big bads in American storytelling.
The Order speak Italian, are powerful and scary, and wind up confronting the Gen13 kids in a most bombastic way, through their superpowered team, The Centurions.
I mention the Italian because it's a sore point in the issue. To be authentic, the dialogue amongst The Order and the Centurions in the first issue of this story is all in Italian, with translations to English included in the letters column. This is just a bad idea. The dialogue is necessary to understanding the story, and not at all obvious. With the second issue, they included the translations of English in the balloons, themselves. It makes the story much clearer.
The Centurions are super powerful, including an impressive character in a gigantic chunk of armor, the way only Jim Lee could draw it. They also have quicker, dangerous combatants and Superman analogues and everything you'd expect. In the end, though, they lose to a battle of wits. Caitlin out-thinks the Centurions to win the day. It's clever and a nice change from the expected -- as is even noted in the dialogue at the end -- but part of me was hoping for a big brawl. Sometimes, I admit, I'm still a 12 year-old boy.
Either way, it seems like a waste to create a team like this for a single storyline and then disappear them entirely. Given how much Jim Lee loves to draw and reference Italy, you'd think he'd have come up with a good excuse to bring them back at some point...
Meanwhile, all of the romantic subplots continue to churn through this issue. After a night of drinking, Rainmaker and Burnout wake up together, creating more awkwardness. Grunge still isn't treating Freefall right, yet she keeps coming back for him. And, most important of all, Burnout meets up with Bliss again, and feelings are exchanged. Her sister may be evil, but Bliss is just bored and loves Bobby. There's a scene of the two of them racing through the Italian city that's great comedic fodder in issue #7. It's all character-based, that's why. It may not always be terribly deep, but it's considered and included, which only makes the series more enjoyable.
One other moment of comedy that deserves pointing out for its effective use of visual storytelling, comes in issue #6. Ivana and Bliss are exchanging unpleasantries in a scene that ends with Bliss lashing out against her brother like this:
That cat cracks me up every time.
Jim Lee, believe it or not, has a lot to live up to J. Scott Campbell's art in the series. Campbell had drawn it all up to this point and his style was the way to show these characters. Lee has some awkward moments in trying to make the characters look younger than what he's used to drawing in "WildC.A.T.s and "Uncanny X-Men," but he more than makes up for it in his storytelling. Sure, a lot of the standard Jim Lee poses and techniques are here, but he mixes them in nicely. He can also draw stand out panels that you wouldn't expect, like this overhead angle on the kids standing around a Ferrari.
Lee has a knack for composition in his storytelling, also. One of the most glaring examples is this page, where Lee mimics a rack focus technique common in movies and television shows. Using a shallow depth of field, the camera quickly changes its focal point in the middle of a scene when the audience's attention should shift, too.
The WildStorm FX people use a blur technique to show this off, but the storytelling moment here is more than just that Photoshop technique. Look at the way Lee has laid out this panel, to make the foreground characters create a "U" shape surrounding the background characters, who exist on the plane the colorists create a focus on with the second panel by blurring out the foreground. The planes are well defined, but the way Lee stages the panel could draw your eye through the appropriate focus spots even without the blur filter.
The script also gives Lee the chance to draw more of those sequences like in the run that shot him to fame on "Uncanny X-Men": The characters trying on multiple outfits across a page montage is great, and there is, of course, the half page shot of the Gen 13 women revealing their new Italian fashions.
The ongoing coloring struggle continues with this pair of issues. Joe Chiodo's coloring is excellent, but the paper soaks up all the ink and leaves a much duller and muddier looking mess behind. We're spoiled by today's paper quality and digital coloring techniques, but this is tough to take at times. There are moments you know colors were chosen to make things pop out, but they barely separate themselves from the backgrounds, instead.
Overall, these two issues are entertaining. The general plot feels too little focused, with a major subplot distracting from it. But the character work and back-and-forth dialogue between characters is still the strongest draw of the book. No wonder people fell in love with the characters.
Back Matter:
It's always fun to look at the ads and house material in the backs of these comics, so here's a small sampling:
Yes, kids, there was a time when Adam Hughes drew the interiors to comics and not just the covers. This ad also shows a certain amount of self awareness for the timeliness issues of Image Comics at the time:
"Debuting in February. Honest!"
There was also a long stretch of time when "Spawn" was a Top Ten selling comic. He was popular enough to support a movie and a video game, too.
I'd like to see one of these today...
Finally, for pure eye candy, here's a Jason Pearson pin-up.
Coming up in the next story: The tall, dark, mysterious goth stranger from the first issue returns. I think that's him at least. I haven't read it yet. J. Scott Campbell returns! For an issue. Then Humberto Ramos fills in, before Campbell returns in time for another Wildstorm crossover event. Sigh.
Twitter || E-mail || Pipeline Message Board || Instagram || Tumblr || VariousandSundry.com || AugieShoots.com || Original Art Collection || Google+
Discuss this story in CBR's Pipeline forum. | 3 Comments
Pipeline Home | Pipeline Archives

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Separate names with a comma.
Glad to be part of this community......cos we get to help each other....
Hence, I have a problem with viewing vipbox on my ipad!!!??
mods please delete.
Hello Can someone advice how to cancel Cosmopolitan membership on Ipad 2, on their website I didn't find any email or phone to contact them....
This is slightly Off Topic, but could be intriguing to some of our members, so we are posting here.
It was probably only a matter of time...
...if there might already be an app for tracking social club memberships, weekly / monthly payments of 'subs' subscriptions, perhaps allow me to...
Woot we got membership!
Noticed the membership number topped 50K today.
iFrog - Sent from my iPad2 using iPF
Thanks skittles. Just paid for my lifetime membership :D
Some people collect ribbons to add to their membership badges.
Guys do you recommend this membership for life? What about the quality and the sound?
This one will be short lived thread, about as long as his membership here.
Too many to mention.
That's testimony to my membership in AA.
Thank to admin WHO accepted my membership.
Sent from my iPad using iPF
Very helpful to the membership! Thanks for posting it up :ipad-keyboard:
Here is the screenshot showing the milestone membership registered by RMAhendran.
i installed the amazon video and am looking at the free prime videos from them, until my membership runs out.
National Trust membership plaque?
where did you find it for free? all i can find is a 99.00 membership with apples development team..
Sweet, I checked the membership roster of the NSS and Ultrimate is a charter member!
Oi. Where's my happy Easter? Huh. Lifetime membership on here counts for nothing. Giggle
Sent from my new iPad using iPF
no beach towel :( you do get the pleasure of my company though :)
Does the membership come with a free beach towel?? Lol!
...just released and app for thé iPad and you can streaming with that off there service however you need to have the Netflix unlimited membership...
What is the NSS?
Hello Brenda, welcome to iPad Forums! With our worldwide membership I'm sure we'll be able to answer any questions you may have.
...thread to iOS pre release discussions so that it reaches a more focused membership.
The discussion is very beneficial.
Sent from my iPad...
...page authenticates automatically based on a PC having a domain membership?
What type of webserver? I am assuming IIS...maybe add another...
Hello Glock,
Welcome to the forum. I do hope you will enjoy your membership with us.
Sent from my iPad using iPF
Welcome to iPad Forums!
Many of our worldwide membership volunteer their time to help their fellow members with their problems and questions.
Amazon Student
Amazon.com Help: Free Trial Membership
Simply sending a "Hello" to everyone. I'm new to this membership but looking forward to sharing and receiving any helpful information.
What did he mean by this?:confused:
Yes, and Amazon has a Prime Membership program ($79/year, USD) where you can download an app on the iPad and view movies and TV shows for free...
...Adelaide here. Very sunny? Definitely. Warm? Sheesh!! 40c today and 42c tomorrow;)
Enjoy you membership mate:)
From Oz using Tapatalk Pro
...great to see another person from SE England joining the forum.
Enjoy your membership
Sent from my iPad 1 using iPF - Greetings
Your hunch is correct, I already have a membership. I purchased it as soon as it was available.
...the most part, although we do have some incredibly clever people among our membership.
Welcome to the forum, and I hope we can be of assistance.
I hope you find a lot information and entertainment when logging onto this forum. I know I have found my membership to be very rewarding.


text:
|Publication number
|Publication type
|Application number
|Publication date
|Jun 9, 2009
|Filing date
|Nov 21, 2007
|Priority date
|Aug 28, 2002
|Fee status
|Also published as
|Publication number
|Brian A. Vaartstra
|Original Assignee
|Micron Technology, Inc.
|Export Citation
|BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan
|Patent Citations (64), Non-Patent Citations (65), Referenced by (19), Classifications (26), Legal Events (4)
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet
This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 11/214,533, filed Aug. 29, 2005, (pending), which is a divisional of application Ser. No. 10/229,743, filed Aug. 28, 2002, issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,967,159, which are all incorporated herein by reference.
This invention relates to methods of forming refractory metal nitride layers (including silicon nitride layers) on substrates using a vapor deposition process, particularly a multi-step atomic layer deposition process, with a refractory metal precursor compound, an organic amine, and optionally a silicon precursor compound. The formed refractory metal (silicon) nitride layers are particularly useful as diffusion barriers for polysilicon substrates to reduce diffusion of oxygen, copper, or silicon.
In integrated circuit manufacturing, microelectronic devices such as capacitors are the basic energy storage devices in random access memory devices, such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM) devices, static random access memory (SRAM) devices, and ferroelectric memory (FERAM) devices. Capacitors typically consist of two conductors acting as electrodes, such as parallel metal (e.g., platinum) or polysilicon plates, that are insulated from each other by a layer of dielectric material.
Historically, silicon dioxide has generally been the dielectric material of choice for capacitors. However, the continuous shrinkage of microelectronic devices over the years has led to dielectric layers approaching only 10 Å in thickness (corresponding to 4 or 5 molecules). To reduce current tunneling through thin dielectric layers, high dielectric metal-containing layers, such as Al2O3, TiO2, ZrO2, HfO2, Ta2O5, (Ba,Sr)TiO3, Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 and SrBi2Ti2O9, have been developed to replace SiO2 layers. However, these metal-containing layers can provide high leakage paths and channels for oxygen diffusion, especially during annealing. Also, an undesirable interfacial layer of SiO2 is frequently created by oxidation of polysilicon during the annealing of the dielectric layer.
One way to address these problems is to deposit a thin, conductive, amorphous, metal nitride barrier layer on the substrate prior to the deposition of the thin resistive metal oxide layer. For example, reactive metal silicon nitride barrier metal layers are used to protect polysilicon from oxygen diffusion prior to applying very thin (i.e., less than 10 Å) barium strontium titanate dielectric films.
Refractory metal nitrides and refractory metal silicon nitrides, such as titanium nitride (Ti—N), tantalum nitride (Ta—N), tungsten nitride (W—N), molybdenum nitride (Mo—N), titanium silicon nitride (Ti—Si—N), tantalum silicon nitride (Ta—Si—N) and tungsten silicon nitride (W—Si—N), are also useful as conductive barrier layers between silicon substrates and copper interconnects to reduce copper diffusion. This copper diffusion has led to degradation of device reliability, causing semiconductor manufacturers to turn toward other less conductive metals, such as aluminum and tungsten.
Further improvements in high temperature adhesion and diffusion resistance can be realized when about 4 to about 30 atom % silicon is incorporated to form a more amorphous metal silicon nitride layer. Examples of refractory metal silicon nitrides that are useful as barrier layers include tantalum silicon nitride (Ta—Si—N), titanium silicon nitride (Ti—Si—N), and tungsten silicon nitride (W—Si—N).
Methods for using physical vapor deposition (PVD) methods, such as reactive sputtering, to form Ta—Si—N barrier layers are known. Hara et al., "Barrier Properties for Oxygen Diffusion in a TaSiN Layer," Jpn J. Appl.-Phys., 36(7B), L893 (1997) describe noncrystalline, low resistivity Ta—Si—N layers that acts as a barrier to oxygen diffusion during high temperature annealing at 650° C. in the presence of O2. The Ta—Si—N layers are formed by using radio-frequency reactive sputtering with pure Ta and Si targets on a 100 nm thick polysilicon layer. Layers having relatively low silicon content, such as Ta50Si16N34 are stated to have a desirable combination of good diffusion barrier resistance along with low sheet resistance. These Ta—Si—N barrier layers have improved peel resistance over Ta—N barrier layers during annealing conditions.
Lee et al., "Structural and chemical stability of Ta—Si—N thin film between Si and Cu," Thin Solid Films, 320:141-146 (1998) describe amorphous, ultra-thin (i.e., less than 100 Å) tantalum-silicon-nitrogen barrier films between silicon and copper interconnection materials used in integrated circuits. These barrier films suppress the diffusion of copper into silicon, thus improving device reliability. Barrier films having compositions ranging from Ta43Si04N53 to Ta60Si11N29 were deposited on silicon by reactive sputtering from Ta and Si targets in an Ar/N2 discharge, followed by sputter-depositing copper films.
However, when PVD methods are used, the stoichiometric composition of the formed metal nitride and metal silicon nitride barrier layers such as Ta—N and Ta—Si—N can be non-uniform across the substrate surface due to different sputter yields of Ta, Si, and N. Due to the resulting poor layer conformality, defects such as pinholes often occur in such layers creating pathways to diffusion. As a result, the effectiveness of a physically deposited diffusion barrier layer is dependent on the layer being sufficiently thick.
Vapor deposition processes such as atomic layer deposition (ALD) processes are preferable to PVD processes in order to achieve the most efficient and uniform barrier layer coverage of substrate surfaces. There remains a need for an ALD process to form refractory metal nitrides (especially Ta—N layers) on substrates, such as semiconductor substrates or substrate assemblies.
This invention is directed to methods of using vapor deposition processes to deposit refractory metal (silicon) nitride layers (i.e., refractory metal nitride or refractory metal silicon nitride layers) on substrates. The process involves combining one or more refractory metal precursor compounds, one or more nitrogen precursor compounds (organic amines), and optionally one or more silicon precursor compounds.
In one embodiment, the present invention provides a method of forming a layer on a substrate (preferably in a process for manufacturing a semiconductor structure). The method includes: providing a substrate (preferably, a semiconductor substrate or substrate assembly); providing a vapor that includes one or more refractory metal precursor compounds of the formula MYn (Formula I), wherein M is a refractory metal, each Y is independently a halogen atom or an organic group, and n is an integer selected to match the valence of the metal M; providing a vapor that includes one or more organic amines; and directing the vapors including the one or more refractory metal precursor compounds and the one or more organic amines to the substrate to form a refractory metal nitride layer (which preferably forms a diffusion barrier layer) on a surface of the substrate using an atomic layer deposition process (a vapor deposition process that includes a plurality of deposition cycles.
In another embodiment, the present invention provides a method of forming a layer on a substrate (preferably, in a process for manufacturing a semiconductor structure). The method includes: providing a substrate (preferably, a semiconductor substrate or substrate assembly) within a deposition chamber; providing a vapor that includes one or more refractory metal precursor compounds of the formula MYn (Formula I), wherein M is a refractory metal, each Y is independently a halogen atom or an organic group, and n is an integer selected to match the valence of the metal M; directing the vapor that includes the one or more precursor compounds of Formula I to the semiconductor substrate or substrate assembly and allowing the one or more compounds to chemisorb to one or more surfaces of the substrate; providing a vapor that includes one or more organic amines; and directing the vapor that includes the one or more organic amines to the substrate with the chemisorbed compounds thereon to form a refractory metal nitride layer on one or more surfaces of the substrate.
Preferably, one or more inert carrier gases are introduced into the chamber after the vapor including one or more compounds of Formula I, after the vapor including one or more organic amines, or after both the vaporized precursor compounds of Formula I and the organic amines.
Optionally, the methods of the present invention can also include providing a vapor that includes one or more metal-containing precursor compounds other than the compounds of Formula I and directing this vapor to the substrate to allow these compounds to chemisorb to one or more surfaces of the substrate. Using such additional precursor compounds, mixed-metal layers can be formed.
All the metal-containing precursor compounds can be directed to the substrate together (e.g., substantially simultaneously) or separately. They can be directed to the substrate in the same cycle or in separate (e.g., alternating) cycles. They can all be directed to the substrate prior to directing the one or more organic amines to the substrate.
In a preferred embodiment, method of the present invention include: providing a vapor that includes one or more precursor compounds of Formula I and directing this vapor to the substrate and allowing the one or more compounds to chemisorb to one or more surfaces of the substrate; providing a vapor that includes one or more organic amines and directing this vapor to the substrate with the chemisorbed compounds thereon; providing a vapor that includes one or more precursor compounds other than those of Formula I and directing this vapor to the substrate and allowing the one or more compounds to chemisorb to one or more surfaces of the substrate; and providing a vapor that includes one or more organic amines and directing this vapor to the substrate with the chemisorbed compounds thereon to form a refractory metal nitride layer on one or more surfaces of the substrate. Preferably, the methods include purging excess vapor including one or more precursor compounds from the deposition chamber after chemisorption of the compounds onto the substrate. These steps typically form a cycle that is repeated at least once, and often hundreds of times.
In another embodiment, the present invention provides a method of manufacturing a memory device structure. The method includes: providing a substrate that includes a silicon-containing surface; providing a vapor that includes one or more refractory metal precursor compounds of the formula MYn (Formula I), wherein M is a refractory metal, each Y is independently a halogen atom or an organic group, and n is an integer selected to match the valence of the metal M; directing the vapor that includes the one or more precursor compounds of Formula I to the substrate and allowing the one or more compounds to chemisorb on the silicon-containing surface; providing a vapor that includes one or more organic amines; and directing the vapor that includes the one or more organic amines to the substrate with the chemisorbed compounds thereon to form a refractory metal nitride barrier layer on the silicon-containing surface; providing a first electrode on the barrier layer; providing a high dielectric material over at least a portion of the first electrode; and providing a second electrode over the high dielectric material.
In yet another embodiment, the present invention provides an atomic layer vapor deposition apparatus that includes: a deposition chamber having a substrate positioned therein; one or more vessels including one or more refractory metal precursor compounds of the formula MYn (Formula I), wherein M is a refractory metal, each Y is independently a halogen atom or an organic group, and n is an integer selected to match the valence of the metal M; and one or more vessels including one or more organic amines. Optionally, the apparatus can include one or more vessels with one or more silicon precursor compounds therein and/or one or more reaction gases other than the organic amines and silicon precursor compounds therein.
"Substrate" as used herein refers to any base material or construction upon which a metal-containing layer can be deposited. The term "substrate" is meant to include semiconductor substrates and also include non-semiconductor substrates such as films, molded articles, fibers, wires, glass, ceramics, machined metal parts, etc.
"Semiconductor substrate" or "substrate assembly" as used herein refers to a semiconductor substrate such as a metal electrode, base semiconductor layer or a semiconductor substrate having one or more layers, structures, or regions formed thereon. A base semiconductor layer is typically the lowest layer of silicon material on a wafer or a silicon layer deposited on another material, such as silicon on sapphire. When reference is made to a substrate assembly, various process steps may have been previously used to form or define regions, junctions, various structures or features, and openings such as capacitor plates or barriers for capacitors.
"Layer" as used herein refers to any metal-containing layer that can be formed on a substrate from the precursor compounds of this invention using a vapor deposition process. The term "layer" is meant to include layers specific to the semiconductor industry, such as "barrier layer," "dielectric layer," and "conductive layer." (The term "layer" is synonymous with the term "film" frequently used in the semiconductor industry.) The term "layer" is also meant to include layers found in technology outside of semiconductor technology, such as coatings on glass.
"Barrier layer" as used herein refers to a conductive, interfacial layer that can reduce diffusion of ambient oxygen through a dielectric layer into a semiconductor substrate (typically a polysilicon substrate) or can reduce diffusion of one layer into another, such as a copper conductive layer into a semiconductor substrate (typically a polysilicon substrate). For this invention, the barrier layer is a tantalum nitride or tantalum silicon nitride layer.
"Refractory metal" as defined by Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary (1992) is a metal that is difficult to fuse, reduce, or work. For the purposes of this invention, the term "refractory metal" is meant to include the Group IVB metals (i.e., titanium (Ti), zirconium (Zr), hafnium (Hf)); the Group VB metals (i.e., vanadium (V), niobium (Nb), tantalum (Ta)); and the Group VIB metals (i.e., chromium (Cr), molybdenum (Mo) and tungsten (W)).
"Precursor compound" as used herein refers to refractory metal precursor compounds, nitrogen precursor compounds, silicon precursor compounds, and other metal-containing precursor compounds, for example. A suitable precursor compound is one that is capable of forming, either alone or with other precursor compounds, a refractory metal-containing layer on a substrate using a vapor deposition process. The resulting refractory metal-containing layers also typically include nitrogen and optionally silicon. Such layers are often useful as diffusion barrier layers (i.e., barrier layers).
"Deposition process" and "vapor deposition process" as used herein refer to a process in which a metal-containing layer is formed on one or more surfaces of a substrate (e.g., a doped polysilicon wafer) from vaporized precursor compound(s). Specifically, one or more metal precursor compounds are vaporized and directed to one or more surfaces of a heated substrate (e.g., semiconductor substrate or substrate assembly) placed in a deposition chamber. These precursor compounds form (e.g., by reacting or decomposing) a non-volatile, thin, uniform, metal-containing layer on the surface(s) of the substrate.
"Chemical vapor deposition" (CVD) as used herein refers to a vapor deposition process wherein the desired layer is deposited on the substrate from vaporized metal precursor compounds and any reaction gases used within a deposition chamber with no effort made to separate the reaction components. In contrast to a "simple" CVD process that involves the substantial simultaneous use of the precursor compounds and any reaction gases, "pulsed" CVD alternately pulses these materials into the deposition chamber, but does not rigorously avoid intermixing of the precursor and reaction gas streams, as is typically done in atomic layer deposition or ALD (discussed in greater detail below). Also, for pulsed CVD, the deposition thickness is dependent on the exposure time, as opposed to ALD, which is self-limiting (discussed in greater detail below).
"Atomic layer deposition" (ALD) as used herein refers to a vapor deposition process in which numerous consecutive deposition cycles are conducted in a deposition chamber. Typically, during each cycle the metal precursor is chemisorbed to the substrate surface; excess precursor is purged out; a subsequent precursor and/or reaction gas is introduced to react with the chemisorbed layer; and excess reaction gas (if used) and by-products are removed. As compared to the one cycle chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, the longer duration multi-cycle ALD process allows for improved control of layer thickness by self-limiting layer growth and minimizing detrimental gas phase reactions by separation of the reaction components. The term "atomic layer deposition" as used herein is also meant to include the related terms "atomic layer epitaxy" (ALE) (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,256,244 (Ackerman)), molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), gas source MBE, organometallic MBE, and chemical beam epitaxy when performed with alternating pulses of precursor compound(s), reaction gas and purge (i.e., inert carrier) gas.
"Chemisorption" as used herein refers to the chemical adsorption of vaporized reactive precursor compounds on the surface of a substrate. The adsorbed species are irreversibly bound to the substrate surface as a result of relatively strong binding forces characterized by high adsorption energies (>30 kcal/mol), comparable in strength to ordinary chemical bonds. The chemisorbed compounds are limited to the formation of a monolayer on the substrate surface. (See "The Condensed Chemical Dictionary", 10th edition, revised by G. G. Hawley, published by Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., N.Y., 225 (1981)). The technique of ALD is based on the principle of the formation of a saturated monolayer of reactive precursor molecules by chemisorption. In ALD one or more appropriate reactive precursor compounds are alternately introduced (e.g., pulsed) into a deposition chamber and chemisorbed onto the surfaces of a substrate. Each sequential introduction of a reactive precursor compound is typically separated by an inert carrier gas purge. Each precursor compound co-react ion adds a new atomic layer to previously deposited layers to form a cumulative solid layer. The cycle is repeated, typically for several hundred times, to gradually form the desired layer thickness. It should be understood, however, that ALD can use one precursor compound and one reaction gas.
The present invention provides methods of forming a metal-containing layer on a substrate using a vapor deposition process with one or more refractory metal precursor compounds, one or more nitrogen precursor compounds (organic amines), and optionally one or more silicon precursor compounds. For the present invention, the metal-containing layer is a refractory metal nitride layer, preferably, a refractory metal silicon nitride layer. More preferably, the layer is a tantalum silicon nitride barrier layer.
The layers or films formed can be in the form of refractory metal nitride-containing films or refractory metal silicon nitride-containing films, wherein the layer includes one or more refractory metal nitrides or refractory metal silicon nitrides optionally doped with other metals. Thus, the term "refractory metal (silicon) nitride" films or layers encompass refractory metal nitrides, refractory metal silicon nitrides (of all possible proportions of refractory metal, Si, and N), as well as doped films or layers thereof (e.g., mixed metal (silicon) nitrides). Such mixed metal species can be formed using one or more metal-containing precursor compounds of a formula different from Formula I, which can be readily determined by one of skill in the art.
The layers of the present invention are preferably conductive. That is, they preferably display an electrical resistivity of no more than about 10 mΩ-cm. The layers of the present invention are typically useful as barrier layers, particularly in the manufacture of semiconductor interconnects. For example, tantalum silicon nitride is being considered as a copper barrier, and is of great interest as a barrier between high dielectric constant oxides and silicon. The addition of silicon to tantalum nitride yields a material that is resistant to crystallization and therefore to diffusion of silicon and metal species via grain boundaries.
The substrate on which the metal-containing layer is formed is preferably a semiconductor substrate or substrate assembly. Any suitable semiconductor material is contemplated, such as for example, conductively doped polysilicon (for this invention simply referred to as "silicon"). A substrate assembly may also contain a layer that includes platinum, iridium, rhodium, ruthenium, ruthenium oxide, titanium nitride, silicon dioxide, aluminum, gallium arsenide, glass, etc., and other existing or to-be-developed materials used in semiconductor constructions, such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM) devices and static random access memory (SRAM) devices, for example. Preferred substrates include a silicon-containing surface.
Substrates other than semiconductor substrates or substrate assemblies can be used in methods of the present invention. These include, for example, fibers, wires, etc. If the substrate is a semiconductor substrate or substrate assembly, the layers can be formed directly on the lowest semiconductor surface of the substrate, or they can be formed on any of a variety of the layers (i.e., surfaces) as in a patterned wafer, for example.
Refractory metal precursor compounds useful in the practice of this invention are of the formula MYn (Formula I) wherein M is a refractory metal, and each Y group is independently a halogen atom or an organic group. Preferably, each Y is independently selected from the group consisting of halogen atoms, alkoxy groups (preferably, (C1-C6)alkoxy groups), and dialkylamino groups (preferably, di(C1-C6)alkylamino groups). More preferably, each Y is a halogen, and most preferably, each Y is a fluorine atom. Preferably, M is a Group IVB (Ti, Zr, Hf), VB (V, Nb, Ta), or VIB (Cr, Mo, W) metal (also referred to as Groups 4, 5, and 6 of the Periodic Table). More preferably, M is Ti, Nb, Ta, Mo, or W. Most preferably, M is Ti or Ta. In Formula I, n is an integer selected to match the valence of the metal M. For example, when M is tantalum (or another pentavalent metal), n is 5.
Preferably M is tantalum and n is 5 so that the refractory metal precursor compound is a tantalum precursor compound of the formula TaY5, wherein Y is defined as above. Useful tantalum precursor compounds include TaF5, TaCl5, TaBr5, Ta(OCH3)5, Ta(OC2H5)5, Ta(OC4H9)5, pentakis(dimethylamino)tantalum, tris(diethylamino)(ethylimino)tantalum, and tris(diethylamino)(tert-butylimino)tantalum (all available from Sigma-Aldrich Chemical Company, Milwaukee, Wis.). More preferably, the tantalum precursor compound is TaF5.
Nitrogen precursor compounds useful in the practice of this invention are organic amines. Preferably, the organic amines are of the formula NR3 wherein each R is independently hydrogen or an organic group. More preferably, each R is independently hydrogen or an organic group optionally containing silicon atoms, fluorine atoms, or combinations thereof. Preferably, the organic groups include up to six carbon atoms, and more preferably up to four carbon atoms for the organic amine compounds. Thus, particularly preferred embodiments include organic amines in which each R is hydrogen or a (C1-C6) organic group optionally containing silicon and/or fluorine atoms. Examples include tert-butyl amine, diethyl amine, isopropyl amine, hexamethyldisilazane, and tetramethyl disilazane.
Preferably, the organic amine is a silylated amine, particularly one of the formula HxN(SiR1 3)y wherein y=1-3, x=3-y, and each R1 is independently hydrogen or an organic group. The term "independently" means that each group may be the same or different. Preferably, the organic groups include up to six carbon atoms, and more preferably up to two carbon atoms for the organic silylated amine compounds. Particularly preferred embodiments include organic silylated amines in which each R1 is hydrogen or a (C1-C6) organic moiety.
These nitrogen sources are significant relative to ammonia because they provide conductive metal nitride films with tantalum precursors, whereas ammonia does not. Further, processes using ammonia often lead to solid by-products that can result in detrimental particulates on the substrate or deposits on chamber walls or downstream piping.
Optional silicon precursor compounds useful in the practice of this invention include silane (SiH4), disilane (Si2H6), halogenated silanes (preferably chlorinated silanes of the formula SiHrCls wherein r=1-4 and s=4-r), and organic silanes of the formula SiHpR2 q wherein p=1-4, q=4-p, and each R2 is independently an organic group (preferably having up to six carbon atoms, more preferably up to two carbon atoms, and most preferably, being an organic moiety). Examples include silane (SiH4), disilane (Si2H6), dichlorosilane (SiH2Cl2), trichlorosilane (SiHCl3), and trimethylsilane (SiH(CH3)3).
As used herein, the term "organic group" is used for the purpose of this invention to mean a hydrocarbon group that is classified as an aliphatic group, cyclic group, or combination of aliphatic and cyclic groups (e.g., alkaryl and aralkyl groups). In the context of the present invention, suitable organic groups for precursor compounds of this invention are those that do not interfere with the formation of a metal-containing layer using vapor deposition techniques. In the context of the present invention, the term "aliphatic group" means a saturated or unsaturated linear or branched hydrocarbon group. This term is used to encompass alkyl, alkenyl, and alkynyl groups, for example. The term "alkyl group" means a saturated linear or branched monovalent hydrocarbon group including, for example, methyl, ethyl, n-propyl, isopropyl, t-butyl, amyl, heptyl, 2-ethylhexyl, dodecyl, octadecyl, and the like. The term "alkenyl group" means an unsaturated, linear or branched monovalent hydrocarbon group with one or more olefinically unsaturated groups (i.e., carbon-carbon double bonds), such as a vinyl group. The term "alkynyl group" means an unsaturated, linear or branched monovalent hydrocarbon group with one or more carbon-carbon triple bonds. The term "cyclic group" means a closed ring hydrocarbon group that is classified as an alicyclic group, aromatic group, or heterocyclic group. The term "alicyclic group" means a cyclic hydrocarbon group having properties resembling those of aliphatic groups. The term "aromatic group" or "aryl group" means a mono- or polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbon group. The term "heterocyclic group" means a closed ring hydrocarbon in which one or more of the atoms in the ring is an element other than carbon (e.g., nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur, etc.).
As a means of simplifying the discussion and the recitation of certain terminology used throughout this application, the terms "group" and "moiety" are used to differentiate between chemical species that allow for substitution or that may be substituted and those that do not so allow for substitution or may not be so substituted. Thus, when the term "group" is used to describe a chemical substituent, the described chemical material includes the unsubstituted group and that group with nonperoxidic O, N, S, Si, F atoms, for example, in the chain as well as carbonyl groups or other conventional substituents. Where the term "moiety" is used to describe a chemical compound or substituent, only an unsubstituted chemical material is intended to be included. For example, the phrase "alkyl group" is intended to include not only pure open chain saturated hydrocarbon alkyl substituents, such as methyl, ethyl, propyl, t-butyl, and the like, but also alkyl substituents bearing further substituents known in the art, such as hydroxy, alkoxy, alkylsulfonyl, halogen atoms, cyano, nitro, amino, carboxyl, etc. Thus, "alkyl group" includes ether groups, haloalkyls, nitroalkyls, carboxyalkyls, hydroxyalkyls, sulfoalkyls, etc. On the other hand, the phrase "alkyl moiety" is limited to the inclusion of only pure open chain saturated hydrocarbon alkyl substituents, such as methyl, ethyl, propyl, t-butyl, and the like.
The precursor compounds may be liquids or solids at room temperature (preferably, they are liquids at the vaporization temperature). Typically, they are liquids sufficiently volatile to be employed using known vapor deposition techniques. However, as solids they may also be sufficiently volatile that they can be vaporized or sublimed from the solid state using known vapor deposition techniques.
In the practice of this invention, one or more reaction gases other than the nitrogen and silicon precursor compounds described herein can be used if desired. These include, for example, NH3, N2H4, B2H6, PH3, and combinations thereof. Typically, the reaction gases referred to herein do not include metal-containing compounds.
The precursor compounds can be vaporized in the presence of an inert carrier gas if desired. Additionally, an inert carrier gas can be used in purging steps, as described below. The inert carrier gas is typically selected from the group consisting of nitrogen, helium, argon, and mixtures thereof. In the context of the present invention, an inert carrier gas is one that is generally unreactive with the complexes described herein and does not interfere with the formation of the desired metal-containing film (i.e., layer).
The deposition process for this invention is a vapor deposition process. Vapor deposition processes are generally favored in the semiconductor industry due to the process capability to quickly provide highly conformal layers even within deep contacts and other openings. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and atomic layer deposition (ALD) are two vapor deposition processes often employed to form thin, continuous, uniform, metal-containing (preferably, barrier) layers onto semiconductor substrates. Using either vapor deposition process, typically one or more precursor compounds are vaporized in a deposition chamber and optionally combined with one or more reaction gases to form a metal-containing layer onto a substrate. It will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art that the vapor deposition process may be enhanced by employing various related techniques such as plasma assistance, photo assistance, laser assistance, as well as other techniques.
The final layer (preferably, a barrier layer) formed preferably has a thickness in the range of about 10 Å to about 500 Å. More preferably, the thickness of the metal-containing layer is in the range of about 30 Å to about 80 Å.
Preferably, the vapor deposition process employed in the methods of the present invention is a multi-cycle ALD process. Such a process is advantageous (particularly over a CVD process) in that in provides for optimum control of atomic-level thickness and uniformity to the deposited layer (e.g., barrier layer) and to expose the metal precursor compounds to lower volatilization and reaction temperatures to minimize degradation. Typically, in an ALD process, each reactant is pulsed sequentially onto a suitable substrate, typically at deposition temperatures of about 25° C. to about 400° C. (preferably about 150° C. to about 300° C.), which is generally lower than presently used in CVD processes. Under such conditions the film growth is typically self-limiting (i.e., when the reactive sites on a surface are used up in an ALD process, the deposition generally stops), insuring not only excellent conformality but also good large area uniformity plus simple and accurate thickness control. Due to alternate dosing of the precursor compounds and/or reaction gases, detrimental vapor-phase reactions are inherently eliminated, in contrast to the CVD process that is carried out by continuous coreaction of the precursors and/or reaction gases. (See Vehkamäki et al, "Growth of SrTiO3 and BaTiO3 Thin Films by Atomic Layer Deposition," Electrochemical and Solid-State Letters, 2(10):504-506 (1999)).
A typical ALD process includes exposing an initial substrate to a first chemical species (e.g., refractory metal precursor compound of the formula MYn) to accomplish chemisorption of the species onto the substrate. Theoretically, the chemisorption forms a monolayer that is uniformly one atom or molecule thick on the entire exposed initial substrate. In other words, a saturated monolayer. Practically, chemisorption might not occur on all portions of the substrate. Nevertheless, such an imperfect monolayer is still a monolayer in the context of the present invention. In many applications, merely a substantially saturated monolayer may be suitable. A substantially saturated monolayer is one that will still yield a deposited layer exhibiting the quality and/or properties desired for such layer.
The first species is purged from over the substrate and a second chemical species (e.g., a different compound of the formula MYn, a metal-containing precursor compound of a formula different than MYn, or an organic amine compound) is provided to react with the first monolayer of the first species. The second species is then purged and the steps are repeated with exposure of the second species monolayer to the first species. In some cases, the two monolayers may be of the same species. As an option, the second species can react with the first species, but not chemisorb additional material thereto. That is, the second species can cleave some portion of the chemisorbed first species, altering such monolayer without forming another monolayer thereon. Also, a third species or more may be successively chemisorbed (or reacted) and purged just as described for the first and second species.
Purging may involve a variety of techniques including, but not limited to, contacting the substrate and/or monolayer with a carrier gas and/or lowering pressure to below the deposition pressure to reduce the concentration of a species contacting the substrate and/or chemisorbed compounds. Examples of carrier gases include N2, Ar, He, etc. Purging may instead include contacting the substrate and/or monolayer with any substance that allows chemisorption by-products to desorb and reduces the concentration of a contacting species preparatory to introducing another species. The contacting species may be reduced to some suitable concentration or partial pressure known to those skilled in the art based on the specifications for the product of a particular deposition process.
ALD is often described as a self-limiting process, in that a finite number of sites exist on a substrate to which the first species may form chemical bonds. The second species might only bond to the first species and thus may also be self-limiting. Once all of the finite number of sites on a substrate are bonded with a first species, the first species will often not bond to other of the first species already bonded with the substrate. However, process conditions can be varied in ALD to promote such bonding and render ALD not self-limiting. Accordingly, ALD may also encompass a species forming other than one monolayer at a time by stacking of a species, forming a layer more than one atom or molecule thick.
The described method indicates the "substantial absence" of the second precursor (i.e., second species) during chemisorption of the first precursor since insignificant amounts of the second precursor might be present. According to the knowledge and the preferences of those with ordinary skill in the art, a determination can be made as to the tolerable amount of second precursor and process conditions selected to achieve the substantial absence of the second precursor.
Thus, during the ALD process, numerous consecutive deposition cycles are conducted in the deposition chamber, each cycle depositing a very thin metal-containing layer (usually less than one monolayer such that the growth rate on average is from about 0.2 to about 3.0 Angstroms per cycle), until a layer of the desired thickness is built up on the substrate of interest. The layer deposition is accomplished by alternately introducing (i.e., by pulsing) refractory metal precursor compound(s) and organic amine compound(s) into the deposition chamber containing a semiconductor substrate, chemisorbing the precursor compound(s) as a monolayer onto the substrate surfaces, and then reacting the chemisorbed precursor compound(s) with the other co-reactive precursor compound(s). The pulse duration of precursor compound(s) and inert carrier gas(es) is sufficient to saturate the substrate surface. Typically, the pulse duration is from about 0.1 to about 5 seconds, preferably from about 0.2 to about 1 second.
In comparison to the predominantly thermally driven CVD, ALD is predominantly chemically driven. Accordingly, ALD is often conducted at much lower temperatures than CVD. During the ALD process, the substrate temperature is maintained at a temperature sufficiently low to maintain intact bonds between the chemisorbed precursor compound(s) and the underlying substrate surface and to prevent decomposition of the precursor compound(s). The temperature is also sufficiently high to avoid condensation of the precursor compounds(s). Typically the substrate temperature is kept within the range of about 25° C. to about 400° C. (preferably about 150° C. to about 300° C.), which is generally lower than presently used in CVD processes. Thus, the first species or precursor compound is chemisorbed at this temperature. Surface reaction of the second species or precursor compound can occur at substantially the same temperature as chemisorption of the first precursor or, less preferably, at a substantially different temperature. Clearly, some small variation in temperature, as judged by those of ordinary skill, can occur but still be a substantially same temperature by providing a reaction rate statistically the same as would occur at the temperature of the first precursor chemisorption. Chemisorption and subsequent reactions could instead occur at exactly the same temperature.
For a typical ALD process, the pressure inside the deposition chamber is kept at about 10−4 torr to about 1 torr, preferably about 10−4 torr to about 0.1 torr. Typically, the deposition chamber is purged with an inert carrier gas after the vaporized precursor compound(s) have been introduced into the chamber and/or reacted for each cycle. The inert carrier gas(es) can also be introduced with the vaporized precursor compound(s) during each cycle.
The reactivity of a precursor compound can significantly influence the process parameters in ALD. Under typical CVD process conditions, a highly reactive compound may react in the gas phase generating particulates, depositing prematurely on undesired surfaces, producing poor films, and/or yielding poor step coverage or otherwise yielding non-uniform deposition. For at least such reason, a highly reactive compound might be considered not suitable for CVD. However, some compounds not suitable for CVD are superior ALD precursors. For example, if the first precursor is gas phase reactive with the second precursor, such a combination of compounds might not be suitable for CVD, although they could be used in ALD. In the CVD context, concern might also exist regarding sticking coefficients and surface mobility, as known to those skilled in the art, when using highly gas-phase reactive precursors, however, little or no such concern would exist in the ALD context.
As stated above, the use of the complexes and methods of forming films of the present invention are beneficial for a wide variety of thin film applications in semiconductor structures. For example, such applications include capacitors such as planar cells, trench cells (e.g., double sidewall trench capacitors), stacked cells (e.g., crown, V-cell, delta cell, multi-fingered, or cylindrical container stacked capacitors), as well as field effect transistor devices.
Use of the barrier layers of the present invention in semiconductor constructions shall be described generally with reference to
Further, for example, the refractory metal nitride diffusion barrier layer 13 may be used in the formation of storage cell capacitors for use in semiconductor devices, e.g., memory devices. As further described herein, the refractory metal nitride diffusion barrier layer is used within a stack of layers forming an electrode of a capacitor, e.g., the other layers including layers formed of materials such as platinum, ruthenium oxide, etc. One skilled in the art will recognize that various semiconductor processes and structures for various devices, e.g., CMOS devices, memory devices, etc., would benefit from the barrier characteristics of the barrier layers of the present invention and in no manner is the present invention limited to the illustrative embodiments described herein.
A system that can be used to perform an atomic layer deposition of the present invention is shown in
In this process, precursor compounds 160 (e.g., a refractory metal precursor compound and an organic amine) are stored in vessels 162. The precursor compounds are vaporized and separately fed along lines 164 and 166 to the deposition chamber 110 using, for example, an inert carrier gas 168. A reaction gas 170 may be supplied along line 172 as needed. Also, a purge gas 174, which is often the same as the inert carrier gas 168, may be supplied along line 176 as needed. As shown, a series of valves 180-185 are opened and closed as required.
The following examples are offered to further illustrate the various specific and preferred embodiments and techniques. It should be understood, however, that many variations and modifications may be made while remaining within the scope of the present invention, so the scope of the invention is not intended to be limited by the examples.
A chamber of configuration shown in
Each cycle involved a 2-second pulse of TaF5 and a 1-second pulse of TMDS, each separated by a 1-second purge with argon and a 2-second pump down under dynamic vacuum. The precursors were introduced without carrier gases, using only a mass flow controller for the TMDS vapor, set at 100 sccm. After 300 cycles a TaN film 110 nm thick was obtained, having a resistivity of 7150 μΩ-cm as measured using a four-point probe. The film was nearly 50/50 TaN based on x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis, and had <5% oxygen, <2% carbon, and no detected fluorine. X-ray diffraction analysis of the deposited film verified that it was crystalline TaN.
The complete disclosures of the patents, patent documents, and publications cited herein are incorporated by reference in their entirety as if each were individually incorporated. Various modifications and alterations to this invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of this invention. It should be understood that this invention is not intended to be unduly limited by the illustrative embodiments and examples set forth herein and that such examples and embodiments are presented by way of example only with the scope of the invention intended to be limited only by the claims set forth herein as follows.
|Cited Patent
|Filing date
|Publication date
|Mar 22, 1985
|Aug 26, 1986
|Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
|Method for the manufacture of metal silicide layers by means of reduced pressure gas phase deposition
|Sep 27, 1984
|Aug 23, 1988
|Eli Lilly And Company
|Method of using bacteriophage lambda p1 promoter to produce a functional polypeptide in streptomyces
|Dec 10, 1990
|Feb 11, 1992
|Ford Motor Company
|Preparation of titanium nitride from organometallic precursors
|Feb 10, 1992
|Oct 26, 1993
|General Electric Company
|Production of diffuse reflective coatings by atomic layer epitaxy
|Nov 6, 1992
|Sep 27, 1994
|Ford Motor Company
|Preparation of titanium nitride-containing refractory material composites
|Dec 1, 1993
|Sep 26, 1995
|Bayer Aktiengesellschaft
|Silicon-aluminium nitride ceramic and precursor compounds, processes for their preparation and their use
|Jan 12, 1995
|Nov 19, 1996
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Tasin oxygen diffusion barrier in multilayer structures
|Aug 19, 1994
|Apr 21, 1998
|Ultra Silicon Technology(Uk) Limited
|AC thin film electroluminescent device
|Jun 16, 1997
|Dec 15, 1998
|Symetrix Corporation
|Liquid source formation of thin films using hexamethyl-disilazane
|Aug 21, 1997
|Jun 1, 1999
|Micron Technology, Inc.
|Difunctional amino precursors for the deposition of films comprising metals
|Oct 1, 1996
|Jun 29, 1999
|Sandia Corporation
|Chemical vapor deposition of W-Si-N and W-B-N
|Apr 8, 1997
|Jul 6, 1999
|Advanced Technology Materials, Inc.
|Growth of BaSrTiO3 using polyamine-based precursors
|Jul 25, 1997
|Nov 9, 1999
|Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha
|Method of manufacturing a semiconductor memory device with a high dielectric constant capacitor
|Sep 20, 1996
|Dec 7, 1999
|California Institute Of Technology
|Synthesis of W-Si-N films by chemical vapor deposition using WF6, SiH4 and NH3
|Jan 23, 1998
|Jan 18, 2000
|Advanced Technology Materials, Inc.
|Tantalum amide precursors for deposition of tantalum nitride on a substrate
|Jan 14, 1998
|Sep 12, 2000
|Kim; Young-Sun
|Calibrated methods of forming hemispherical grained silicon layers
|Jul 8, 1997
|Nov 7, 2000
|Tokyo Electron Limited
|Film forming apparatus and method, and film modifying apparatus and method
|Mar 31, 1997
|Nov 28, 2000
|Motorola, Inc.
|Method of forming a barrier layer
|Dec 15, 1998
|Jan 16, 2001
|Samsung Electronics, Co., Ltd.
|Method for forming metal layer using atomic layer deposition
|Oct 19, 1999
|Mar 20, 2001
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Atomic layer deposition with nitrate containing precursors
|Feb 14, 2000
|Aug 7, 2001
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Method of making MOSFET with high dielectric constant gate insulator and minimum overlap capacitance
|Jun 16, 1999
|Aug 14, 2001
|Micron Technology, Inc.
|Precursor mixtures for use in preparing layers on substrates
|Dec 18, 1998
|Aug 21, 2001
|Advanced Technology Materials, Inc.
|Liquid delivery MOCVD process for deposition of high frequency dielectric materials
|Feb 23, 2000
|Sep 11, 2001
|Samsung Electronics Co, Ltd.
|Method of forming metal layer using atomic layer deposition and semiconductor device having the metal layer as barrier metal layer or upper or lower electrode of capacitor
|Jan 3, 2000
|Jan 1, 2002
|Micron Technology, Inc.
|Chemical vapor deposition methods of forming a high K dielectric layer and methods of forming a capacitor
|May 15, 2000
|Jan 29, 2002
|Micron Technology, Inc.
|Method for fabricating an SrRuO3 film
|Nov 7, 2000
|Feb 19, 2002
|Micron Technology, Inc.
|Organometallic compound mixtures in chemical vapor deposition
|Aug 20, 1998
|Feb 26, 2002
|The United States Of America As Represented By The Secretary Of The Navy
|Electronic devices with a barrier film and process for making same
|Mar 31, 2000
|May 14, 2002
|Silicon Valley Group, Thermal Systems Llc
|Trench isolation process to deposit a trench fill oxide prior to sidewall liner oxidation growth
|Aug 23, 2000
|May 21, 2002
|Interuniversitair Microelektronica Centrum (Imec)
|Method for bottomless deposition of barrier layers in integrated circuit metallization schemes
|Feb 27, 1997
|Oct 8, 2002
|Micron Technology, Inc.
|Methods for forming a dielectric film
|Jan 2, 2001
|Nov 12, 2002
|Hyundai Electronics Industries Co., Ltd.
|Method for forming a capacitor for semiconductor devices with diffusion barrier layer on both sides of dielectric layer
|Sep 8, 1999
|Jan 28, 2003
|Asm America, Inc.
|Apparatus and method for growth of a thin film
|Oct 10, 2001
|Mar 4, 2003
|Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
|Atomic layer deposition of cobalt from cobalt metallorganic compounds
|Mar 6, 2001
|Mar 18, 2003
|Asm Microchemistry Oy
|Method of forming graded thin films using alternating pulses of vapor phase reactants
|Jul 7, 2000
|Jul 1, 2003
|Asm International, N.V.
|Atomic layer deposition
|May 7, 2002
|Jul 1, 2003
|Tokyo Electron Limited
|Method for depositing conformal nitrified tantalum silicide films by thermal CVD
|Jul 23, 2001
|Jul 8, 2003
|Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
|Semiconductor devices having metal layers as barrier layers on upper or lower electrodes of capacitors
|Jun 20, 2001
|Jan 27, 2004
|Matsushita Electric Industrsial Co., Ltd.
|Semiconductor device having a copper interconnect layer
|Dec 23, 2002
|Mar 9, 2004
|Asm International N.V.
|Graded thin films
|Mar 15, 2002
|Mar 16, 2004
|Asm International N.V.
|Method for preparing metal nitride thin films
|Aug 28, 2002
|May 4, 2004
|Micron Technology, Inc.
|Systems and methods for forming strontium- and/or barium-containing layers
|Aug 28, 2002
|Sep 21, 2004
|Micron Technology, Inc.
|Systems and methods for forming refractory metal nitride layers using disilazanes
|Apr 8, 2002
|Jan 25, 2005
|Applied Materials, Inc.
|Multiple precursor cyclical deposition system
|Apr 28, 2003
|Apr 26, 2005
|Gelest, Inc.
|Process for low-temperature metal-organic chemical vapor deposition of tungsten nitride and tungsten nitride films
|Aug 28, 2002
|Nov 22, 2005
|Micron Technology, Inc.
|Systems and methods for forming refractory metal nitride layers using organic amines
|Aug 28, 2002
|Feb 7, 2006
|Micron Technology, Inc.
|Systems and methods for forming tantalum silicide layers
|Aug 30, 2004
|Oct 17, 2006
|Micron Technology, Inc.
|Systems and methods of forming refractory metal nitride layers using disilazanes
|Aug 30, 2004
|Mar 27, 2007
|Micron Technology, Inc.
|Systems and methods of forming refractory metal nitride layers using disilazanes
|Aug 29, 2005
|Nov 27, 2007
|Micron Technology, Inc.
|Systems and methods of forming refractory metal nitride layers using organic amines
|Jan 3, 2001
|Jul 4, 2002
|Byun Jeong Soo
|Method of forming refractory metal nitride layers using chemisorption techniques
|Aug 27, 2002
|Oct 9, 2003
|Asm Microchemistry Oy
|Method of growing oxide films
|May 7, 2002
|Nov 13, 2003
|Tokyo Electron Limited
|Method for depositing tantalum silicide films by thermal chemical vapor deposition
|Nov 14, 2002
|May 20, 2004
|Ziyun Wang
|Composition and method for low temperature deposition of silicon-containing films such as films including silicon nitride, silicon dioxide and/or silicon-oxynitride
|Sep 1, 2005
|Mar 9, 2006
|Micron Technology, Inc.
|Systems and methods of forming tantalum silicide layers
|Aug 31, 2006
|Dec 28, 2006
|Micron Technology, Inc.
|Systems and methods of forming refractory metal nitride layers using disilazanes
|Feb 28, 2007
|Jun 28, 2007
|Micron Technology, Inc.
|Systems and methods of forming refractory metal nitride layers using disilazanes
|Feb 28, 2007
|Jul 19, 2007
|Micron Technology, Inc.
|Systems and methods of forming refractory metal nitride layers using disilazanes
|Jan 3, 2008
|May 1, 2008
|Micron Technology, Inc.
|Systems and methods of forming tantalum silicide layers
|Feb 12, 1991
|Aug 21, 1991
|Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
|Metal halide lamp and method of making the same
|Nov 9, 2001
|May 15, 2002
|Applied Materials, Inc.
|Atomic layer deposition of Ta205 and high-K dielectrics
|Title not available
|Title not available
|Dec 4, 2000
|Jun 7, 2001
|Asm Microchemistry Oy
|Atomic-layer-chemical-vapor-deposition of films that contain silicon dioxide
|"Refractory metal," Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, Avenel, New Jersey, 1992; p. 1207.
|Alén et al., "Tert-butylamine and allylamine as reductive nitrogen sources in atomic layer deposition of TaN thin films," J. Mater. Res., 2002, Jan.; 17(1):107-13.
|Aselage, "Preparation and Properties of Icosahedral Borides," The Physics and Chemistry of Carbides; Nitrides and Borides, R. Freer, ed., 1990, 185:97-111.
|Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD 2002) Conference, Aug. 19-21, 2002, at Hanyang University in Seoul, Korea, Conference Schedule [online] [retrieved Jul. 8, 2003]. Retrieved from the Internet:<URL:http://www.avs.org/conferences/ald/2002/program/aug19.html>; 3 pgs.
|Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD 2002) Conference, Aug. 19-21, 2002, at Hanyang University in Seoul, Korea, Oral and slide Presentations [CD-ROM]. Available online from the Internet:<URL:https://www.avs.org/conferences/ald/2002cd-form.html: 2 CDs.
|Bachmann et al., "Characterization and Properties of Artificially Grown Diamond," Diamond and Diamond-Like Films and Coatings, R.E. Clausing et al., eds., 1991; 266:677-713.
|Badzian et al., "Graphite-Boron Nitride Solid Solutions by Chemical Vapor Desposition," Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Chemical Vapor Deposition, F.A. Glaski, ed.1972; 747-53.
|Bouteville et al., "LPCVD of Ta and Ti disilicides. TaCl2 solid source-selectivity of TiSi2 growth," Proc. Eur. Conf. Chem. Vap. Deposition, R. Porat, ed., Jerusalem, Israel, 1987, Mar. 29-Apr. 3; 6:264-9.
|Chen et al., "Electrical Properties of the System: Boron-Nitrogen-Carbon," Proceedings of the 3rd International Carbon Conference, 1980; 44-7.
|Chen et al., "Low temperature plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition of tantalum nitride from tantalum pentabromide for copper metallization," J. Vac. Sci. Technol., Jan./Feb. 1999,; B 17(1):182-5.
|Chen et al., "Low-temperature chemical vapor deposition of tantalum nitride from tantalum pentabromide for integrated circuitry copper metallization applications," J. Mater. Res., May 1999; 14(5): 2043-52.
|Cho et al., "Diffusion Barrier Properties of Metallorganic Chemical Vapor Deposited Tantalum Nitride Films Against Cu Metallization," J. Electrochem. Soc., 1999; 146(10):3724-30.
|Conde et al., "Boron carbide thin films prepared by CO2 laser assisted chemical vapour deposition," Protective Coatings and Thin Films: Synthesis, Characterization and Applications, ASI Series, Y. Pauleau et al., eds., Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 1996, May 30-Jun. 5; title page, publication page, table of contents, 21:99-109.
|Conde et al., "Influence of carbon content on the crystallographic structure of boron carbide films," Surface and Coatings Technology, 2000; 125:141-6.
|Cullity, Elements of X-Ray Diffraction, 2nd Edition, 1978; cover page, publication page, table of contents only; 6 pgs.
|Dekempeneer et al., "Tribological and structural properties of amorphous B-N-C coatings," Surface and Coatings Technology, 1996; 86-87:581-5.
|Dinescu et al., "Boron carbon nitride films deposited by sequential pulses laser deposition," Applied Surface Science, 1998; 127-129:692-6.
|Dubovik et al., "High Temperature Boron Carbonitride Based Ceramics," Journal of the Less-Common Metals, 1986; 117:265-9.
|Emin, "Icosahedral boron-rich solids," Physics Today, 1987, Jan., 40(1):55-62.
|Gordon et al., "Vapor deposition of metal oxides and silicates: possible gate insulators for future microelectronics," Chem. Mater., 2001, 13(8):2463-4. Published online Jul. 10, 2001.
|Hara et al., "Barrier Properties for Oxygen Diffusion in a TaSiN Layer," Jpn. J. Appl.-Phys., 1997; 36(7B), L893-L895.
|Hawley, The Condensed Chemical Dictionary, 10th Edition, Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., New York, 1981; 225-226.
|Hendrix et al., "Composition control of Hf1-xSixO2 films deposited on Si by chemical-vapor deposition using amide precursors," Appl. Phys. Lett., Apr. 1, 2002; 80(13):2362-4.
|Hieber et al., "Possible Applications of Tantalum Silicide For Very-Large-Scale Integration Techology," Thin Solid Films, 1986; 140:131-5.
|Juppo, "Atomic Layer Deposition of Metal and Transition Metal Nitride Thin Films and In Situ Mass Spectrometry Studies," Dissertation, Dec. 14, 2001, University of Helsinki, Department of Chemistry, Helsinki, Finland; 1-65.
|Kaner et al., "Boron-Carbon-Nitrogen Materials of Graphite-Like Structure," Materials Research Bulletin, 1987; 22(3):399-404.
|Kawaguchi, "B/C/N Materials Based on the Graphite Network," Advanced Materials, 1997; 9(8):615-25.
|Knotek et al., "Mechanical and Tribological Properties of Thin Films Produced by Sputtering Within the B-N-C Triangle," Hard Coatings Based on Borides, Carbides and Nitrides, A. Kumar et al., eds., Warrendale, Pennsylvania, title page, table of contents, 1998; 169-78.
|Kolawa et al., "Tantalum-based diffusion barriers in Si/Cu VLSI metallizations," J. Appl. Phys., 1991, Aug. 1; 70(3):1369-73.
|Lee et al., "High-k gate dielectric applications using ALD Hf-based oxides," Solid State Technology, Jan. 2003; 46(1):45-6, 56.
|Lee et al., "Structural and chemical stability of Ta-Si-N thin film between Si and Cu," Thin Solid Films, 1998; 320:141-6.
|Liu et al., "Atomic Layer Deposition of Hafnium Oxide Thin Films from Tetrakis(dimethylamino)Hafnium (TDMAH) and Ozone," Mat Res Soc Symp Proc, 2003; 765:97-102.
|Maruyama et al., "Silicon dioxide thin films prepared by chemical vapor deposition from tetrakis (dimethylamino) silane and ozone," Appl. Phys. Lett., Aug. 2, 1993; 63(5):611-13.
|Moore et al., "Properties and characterization of codeposited boron nitride and carbon materials," Journal of Applied Physics, 1989, Jun. 15; 65(12):5109-118.
|Newport et al., "The dual source APCVD of titanium nitride thin films from reaction of hexamethyldisilazane and titanium tetrachloride," J. Mater. Chem., 2002; 12:1906-9. Published online Apr. 29, 2002.
|NIST WebBook, [online]. [retrieved Dec. 12, 2002]. Retrieved from the Internet: <http://webbook.nist.gov/>. 2 pages.
|Ohshita et al., "HfO2 growth by low-pressure chemical vapor deposition using the Hf(N(C2H5)2)4/O2 gas system," Journal of Crystal Growth, Nov. 2001; 233(1):292-7.
|Ohshita et al., "Using tetrakis-diethylamido-hafnium for HfO2 thin-film growth in low-pressure chemical vapor deposition," Thin Solid Films, Mar. 1, 2002; 406(1-2):215-18.
|Oliveira et al., "Deposition of boron carbide by laser CVD: a comparison with thermodynamic predictions," Solid Thin Films, 1997; 307:29-37.
|Oliveira et al., "Synthesis and properties of BchiCyNz coatings," J. Mater. Res., Mar. 2001; 16(3):734-43.
|Oliveira et al., "XPS investigation of BchiCyNz coatings deposited by laser assisted chemical vapour desposition," Surface & Coatings Technology, 1998, 100-101:398-403.
|Redlich et al., "B-C-N nanotubes and boron doping of carbon nanotubes," Chemical Physics Letters, Sep. 27, 1996; 260(3-4):465-70.
|Reynolds, "Low pressure chemical vapor deposition of tantalum silicide," J. Electrochem. Soc., Jun. 1988 135(6):1483-90.
|Reynolds, "Low pressure chemical vapor deposition of tantalum silicide," Presentation Abstract, Proc. Electrochem. Soc., Palo Alto, CA, USA, 1987.
|Ritala et al., "Atomic layer deposition of oxide thin films with metal alkoxides as oxygen sources," Science, Apr. 14, 2000; 288:319-21.
|Saugnac et al., "Characterization of C-B-N Solid Solutions Deposited from a Gaseous Phase between 900° and 1050° C.," Journal of the American Ceramic Society, Jan. 1992 75(1):161-9.
|Shimanouchi, Tables of Molecular Vibrational Frequencies Consolidated vol. I; Tokyo, Japan, 1972; title page, foreward, table of contents, p. 1, abstract, 6 pages total.
|Suzuki et al., "Atomic Layer Deposition of HfO2 using Hf(N(C2H5)2)4 and O3," Poster Presentation, ALD 2002 Conference, Hanyang University, Seoul, Aug. 14, 2002; 14 pages.
|Szörényi et al., "Chemical analysis of a-CNx thin films synthesized by nanosecond and femtosecond pulsed laser deposition," Applied Physics A, 1999; 69[Suppl]:S941-S-944. Published online Dec. 28, 1999.
|Tallant et al., "Boron carbide structure by Raman spectroscopy," Physical Review B, Sep. 15, 1989; 40(8):5649-56.
|Telle, "Chapter 4-Boride and Carbide Ceramics," Materials Science and Technology, vol. 11:Structure and Properties of Ceramics, M. Swain, ed., New York, New York, 1994; cover page, title page, publication page, table of contents; 11:173-266.
|Tsai et al, "Metalorganic chemical vapor deposition of tantalum nitride by terbutylimidotris (diethyalmido) tantalum for advanced metallization," Appl. Phys. Lett., Aug. 21, 1995; 67(8):1128-30.
|Ulrich et al., "Phase separation in magnetron sputtered superhard BCN thin films," Diamond and Related Materials, 1998; 7:839-44.
|Vaartstra et al., Syntheses and Structures of a Series of Very Low Coordinate Barium Compounds: Ba[N(SiMe3)2]2(THF)2, {Ba[N(SiMe3)2]2(THF)}2, and {Ba[N(SiMe3)2]2}2, Inorg. Chem., Jan. 9, 1991; 30:121-5.
|Vehkamäki et al., "Growth of SrTiO3 and BaTiO3 Thin Films by Atomic Layer Deposition," Electrochemical and Solid-State Letters, 1999; 2(10):504-6.
|Wallace et al., "Identifying the Most Promising High-k Gate Dielectrics," Semiconductor International, Jul. 2001; pp. 227-228, 230, 232, 234, 236.
|Warren, X-Ray Diffraction, Mineola, New York, 1990, cover page, publication page, table of contents, 5 pages total.
|Weber et al., "Growth of cubic boron nitride and boron-carbon-nitrogen coatings using N-trimethylborazine in an electron cyclotron resonance plasma process," Diamond and Related Materials, 1993; 2:201-6.
|Weiller et al., "Effect of Dimethylamine on the Chemical Vapor Deposition of TiN from Tetrakis(dimethylamido)titanium and Ammonia," J. Electrochem. Soc., Mar. 1997; 144(3): L40-L43.
|Widmer et al., "The growth and physical properties of low pressure chemically vapour-deposited films of tantalum silicide on n+-type polycrystalline silicon," Thin Solid Films, Apr. 1, 1986; 138(1):131-40.
|Williams et al., "Low pressure chemical vapor deposition of tantalum silicide," J. Electrochem. Soc., Dec. 1986; 133(12):2637-44.
|Winter et al., "A Single-Source Precursor to Titanium Nitride Thin Films. Evidence for the Intermedicacy of Imido Complexes in the Chemical Vapor Deposition Process," J. Am. Chem. Soc., Jan. 29, 1992; 114(3):1095-97.
|Winter, "The Chemical Vapor Deposition of Metal Nitride Films Using Modern Metalorganic Precursors," Aldrichimica Acta, 2000; 33(1):3-12.
|X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) Database, Version 3.2 (Web Version), [online]. [retrieved Nov. 26, 2002]. Retrieved from the Internet: <http://srdata.nist.gov/xps/>. 1 page.
|Ya Kosolapova et al., Poroshkovaia Metallurgiia, 1971; 1(97):27-33. (English Language Summary).
|Citing Patent
|Filing date
|Publication date
|Jan 21, 2011
|Sep 3, 2013
|Novellus Systems, Inc.
|Plasma-activated deposition of conformal films
|Mar 7, 2012
|Nov 26, 2013
|Novellus Systems, Inc.
|Method for depositing a chlorine-free conformal sin film
|Sep 23, 2011
|Jan 28, 2014
|Novellus Systems, Inc.
|Plasma activated conformal dielectric film deposition
|May 15, 2012
|Feb 11, 2014
|Novellus Systems, Inc.
|Methods for UV-assisted conformal film deposition
|Sep 13, 2012
|Mar 18, 2014
|Micron Technology, Inc.
|Methods of making crystalline tantalum pentoxide
|Mar 1, 2012
|May 20, 2014
|Novellus Systems, Inc.
|Method of plasma activated deposition of a conformal film on a substrate surface
|Apr 11, 2011
|May 20, 2014
|Novellus Systems, Inc.
|Plasma activated conformal film deposition
|Sep 7, 2012
|Feb 17, 2015
|Novellus Systems, Inc.
|Conformal doping via plasma activated atomic layer deposition and conformal film deposition
|Dec 18, 2013
|Apr 7, 2015
|Novellus Systems, Inc.
|Plasma activated conformal dielectric film deposition
|Oct 28, 2013
|Jun 30, 2015
|Novellus Systems, Inc.
|Method for depositing a chlorine-free conformal sin film
|Dec 30, 2013
|Jul 7, 2015
|Lam Research Corporation
|Plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition with pulsed plasma exposure
|Feb 18, 2014
|Dec 15, 2015
|Lam Research Corporation
|High growth rate process for conformal aluminum nitride
|Mar 31, 2014
|Jan 5, 2016
|Novellus Systems, Inc.
|Plasma activated conformal film deposition
|Dec 20, 2013
|Feb 9, 2016
|Lam Research Corporation
|Gapfill of variable aspect ratio features with a composite PEALD and PECVD method
|Nov 7, 2013
|Mar 15, 2016
|Novellus Systems, Inc.
|Methods for depositing films on sensitive substrates
|Oct 23, 2013
|May 31, 2016
|Lam Research Corporation
|Sub-saturated atomic layer deposition and conformal film deposition
|Nov 7, 2013
|May 31, 2016
|Novellus Systems, Inc.
|Conformal film deposition for gapfill
|Feb 21, 2014
|Jun 21, 2016
|Lam Research Corporation
|Plasma assisted atomic layer deposition titanium oxide for conformal encapsulation and gapfill applications
|Feb 28, 2014
|Jul 12, 2016
|Novellus Systems, Inc.
|Soft landing nanolaminates for advanced patterning
|U.S. Classification
|International Classification
|Cooperative Classification
|European Classification
|Dec 22, 2009
|Certificate of correction
|Oct 1, 2012
|Fee payment
Year of fee payment: 4
|May 12, 2016
Owner name: U.S. BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS COLLATERAL AGEN
Free format text: SECURITY INTEREST;ASSIGNOR:MICRON TECHNOLOGY, INC.;REEL/FRAME:038669/0001
Effective date: 20160426
|Jun 2, 2016
Owner name: MORGAN STANLEY SENIOR FUNDING, INC., AS COLLATERAL
Free format text: PATENT SECURITY AGREEMENT;ASSIGNOR:MICRON TECHNOLOGY, INC.;REEL/FRAME:038954/0001
Effective date: 20160426


text:
On Second Thought is a one-hour, daily news talk show that airs at 9 a.m. ET weekdays.
Discover hidden treasures including an 18th-century Chinese cinnabar lacquer box and a shadow box that may have been made by Joseph Cornell. Thursday, July 28 at 7 PM
National Signing Day is over and the reigning AAAAAA Champions, the Colquitt County Packers, had 25 players sign letters of intent on National Signing Day. I had a chance to go one-on-one with Head... MORE
Make your secure online donation at GPB.org.
Tue., July 2, 2013 7:00am
Drug Overdose Killed Rapper
A medical examiner's investigator says Chris Kelly of the '90s rap duo Kriss Kross died of a drug overdose. Investigator Betty Honey of the Fulton County Medical Examiner's office in Atlanta said Monday that a toxicology screening showed the 34-year-old Kelly had a mixture of drugs in his system when he was pronounced dead on May 1.
Full Story
Thu., May 9, 2013 7:00am
Kris Kross Rapper's Funeral Thursday
Mourners are set to gather for the funeral of former Kris Kross rapper Chris Kelly Thursday in Atlanta. The 34-year-old was found dead May 1 of a suspected drug overdose.


text:
In This Section
Journal Forum
A Meta-Analysis of High Resolution Audio Perceptual Evaluation - June 2016
2 comments
Synthetic Reverberator - January 1960
3 comments
Sound Board: High-Resolution Audio - October 2015
4 comments
AES E-Library
Directions in Digital Audio Broadcasting
An investigation by broadcasting corporations in the Federal Republic of Germany concerning the question of whether the present broadcasting of FM radio programs in the VHF band will be able to meet listener demands in the future.
Click to purchase paper as a non-member or login as an AES member. If your company or school subscribes to the E-Library then switch to the institutional version. If you are not an AES member and would like to subscribe to the E-Library then Join the AES!
This paper costs $33 for non-members and is temporarily free for AES members.
Learn more about the AES E-Library
Start a discussion about this paper!