Coating apparatus – Gas or vapor deposition
Reexamination Certificate
1998-05-11
2001-01-30
Aftergut, Jeff H. (Department: 1733)
Coating apparatus
Gas or vapor deposition
Reexamination Certificate
active
06179919
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application serial no. 87103360, filed Mar. 7, 1998, the full disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for performing a chemical vapor deposition. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and method capable of performing a chemical vapor deposition at a lower reacting temperature.
2. Description of Related Art
Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is a technique for forming a solid thin film on a substrate by the chemical reaction of one or a few types of gaseous reactants. Because most common participating gaseous reactants are fluid, fluid flow phenomena affect the performance of a CVD reaction.
Laminar flow and turbulent flow are the two most commonly observed fluid motions. The speed and direction of flow of the former is smooth while that of the latter is non-uniform and chaotic. In general, when the diameter of a pipe in which a fluid moves through is wide, or the speed of flow is high, the fluid will flow in a turbulent mode. However, turbulent motion of the gaseous reactants is highly undesirable for chemical vapor deposition. This is because a turbulent flow will stir up micro particles or dust particles within the reaction chamber so that final quality of the deposited film is adversely affected. Therefore, most CVD equipment design tends to incorporate a smooth laminar flow section in its reaction chamber so that reaction stability is maintained.
Generally, if the flow of gaseous reactants in a CVD process is laminar, a higher deposition temperature must be used. A higher temperature not only increases power consumption of the CVD equipment, but also can easily damage silicon chip structure causing reliability problems, especially when a high temperature is used in the later part of the manufacturing cycle. Alternatively, a deposition process capable of being performed at a lower temperature, such as a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) method, can be used. However, it is difficult for a PECVD method to deposit a smooth and uniform thin film over a substrate. In other words, the deposited thin film lacks conformability.
In light of the foregoing, there is a need to provide a better apparatus and method for carrying out chemical vapor deposition.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for depositing a thin film over a substrate. The method utilizes plasma, which can be used to deposit CVD film at a lower temperature, combined with a laminar flow for carrying out a chemical vapor deposition so that the resulting film layer is more conformable. To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, the invention provides an apparatus and method for carrying out chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The apparatus comprises a plasma generator for dissociating source gases into an atomic or ionic form, and a laminar CVD chamber connected to the plasma generator for depositing the dissociated atoms or ions. The method of carrying out the chemical vapor deposition comprises the steps of first dissociating source gases into an atomic or ionic form using a plasma generator. Next, the atoms or ions flow through the reaction chamber with very high velocity and are allowed to deposit onto a substrate using a laminar flow chemical vapor deposition.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary, and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5024182 (1991-06-01), Kobayashi et al.
patent: 5567243 (1996-10-01), Foster et al.
patent: 5735960 (1998-04-01), Sandhu et al.
patent: 5900064 (1999-05-01), Kholodenko
patent: 5985378 (1999-11-01), Paquet
patent: 19532435 (1997-03-01), None
Aftergut Jeff H.
Huang Jiawei
J C Patents
United Silicon Incorporated
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