Patent ID: 9748093
Date: 2017-08-29
CPC Classifications: H01L

Claim:
1. A method of forming a conformal silicon nitride layer on a patterned substrate, the method comprising: placing the patterned substrate in a substrate processing region of a substrate processing chamber; flowing a silicon-containing precursor into the substrate processing region; combining the silicon-containing precursor with a nitrogen-containing precursor; forming a pulsed plasma by applying a square wave of RF power to the substrate processing region, wherein the square wave comprises a minimum plasma power level between 1% and 25% of the peak plasma power and wherein the square wave has a duty cycle between 80% and 99%; exciting the combination of the silicon-containing precursor and the nitrogen-containing precursor in the pulsed plasma; and forming the conformal silicon nitride layer, wherein the conformal silicon nitride layer comprises both silicon and nitrogen, and wherein an atomic percentage of nitrogen in the conformal silicon nitride layer is less than 50% while an atomic percentage of silicon is greater than 50% in the conformal silicon nitride layer.