Patent ID: 6319324
Filing Date: 2001-11-20
Classification: C23C,H01L

Abstract:
A substrate processing system for depositing a film on the major surface of a substrate, said system comprising:a vacuum chamber;a substrate heating system for supplying thermal energy to heat said substrate;a gas delivery system configured to deliver a process gas to said vacuum chamber;a vacuum system for reducing the pressure in said vacuum chamber;a system controller, including a computer for controlling said gas delivery system, said substrate heating system, and said vacuum system; anda memory coupled to said controller comprising a computer-usable medium having a computer-readable program code physically embodied therein for directing operation of said substrate processing system, said computer-readable program code including:computer-readable program code for causing said gas delivery system to introduce a process gas combination comprising TEOS and O.sub.3 into said chamber and to cause said vacuum system to reduce the pressure in the chamber to a low base level;computer-readable program code for causing said vacuum system to increase the pressure in the chamber at a substantially constant ramp-up rate from the low base pressure to a target subatmospheric deposition pressure and causing said substrate heating system to supply thermal energy to react the TEOS and O.sub.3 in the process gas combination to deposit a ramp silicon oxide layer over the major surface of the substrate;computer-readable program code for causing said gas delivery system to terminate the flow of O.sub.3 a predetermined time after the pressure starts to increase, to stop the deposition of the ramp silicon oxide layer prior to the attainment of the target subatmospheric deposition pressure; andcomputer-readable program code for causing said vacuum system to maintain the pressure in the chamber at the target deposition pressure when the target pressure is attained, causing the gas delivery system to restart the flow of O.sub.3 when the target deposition pressure is attained, and causing said substrate heating system to supply thermal energy to react the TEOS and O.sub.3 in the process gas combination while the pressure is equal to the target deposition pressure to form an SACVD layer over the ramp silicon oxide layer.