Patent ID: 7871678

Claim:
A sequential method for depositing a film onto a substrate in a deposition chamber comprising: (a) introducing a reactant gas into the chamber to adsorb at least one layer of the reactant gas onto the substrate; (b) removing any excess reactant gas from the chamber; (c) during at least step (a) and prior to the adsorption of the at least one layer of the reactant gas on the substrate, exposing the reactant gas to ions generated from a first ion-generating feed gas to increase the chemical reactivity of the reactant gas; (d) introducing a second ion-generating feed gas into the chamber; (e) introducing at least one radical-generating feed gas into the chamber; (f) generating a plasma from the second ion-generating feed gas and the radical-generating feed gas to form ions and radicals; (g) exposing the substrate to the ions from the second ion-generating feed gas and radicals; (h) modulating the ions from the second ion-generating feed gas; and (i) reacting the adsorbed layer of the reactant gas with the ions from the second ion-generating feed gas and the radicals to deposit the film.