Patent ID: 7682946

Claim:
A method for depositing a material on a substrate, comprising: positioning a substrate on a substrate support within a process chamber comprising a showerhead assembly having an inner region and an outer region; directing a first process gas to the inner region and a second process gas to the outer region; maintaining flow of at least one carrier gas through the inner region and the outer region of the showerhead assembly to form a circular directional gas; exposing the substrate to the circular directional gas; and depositing a material containing at least one element from at least one precursor onto the substrate by sequentially exposing the substrate to the at least one precursor and a plasma during a plasma-enhanced ALD process comprising sequentially pulsing the at least one precursor and generating the plasma, wherein the at least one precursor is pulsed into the at least one carrier gas flowing through the inner region and the plasma is generated from the circular directional gas comprising the at least one carrier gas.