Patent ID: 8092658

Claim:
A method of depositing a film into high aspect ratio features on a substrate, the method comprising: disposing into a processing chamber, a substrate having features thereon of at least a 7:1 aspect ratio and less than 100 nm in width, the processing chamber having: a substrate support therein for supporting the substrate, a gas injection system for introducing a background gas into the processing chamber, and a distributed metal source comprised of at least one metal having an ionization potential that is less than an ionization potential of the background gas; introducing the background gas into the processing chamber; energizing at least one plasma source to inductively or capactively couple energy into the background gas to form a high density plasma having a density of electrons that exceeds 10 11 cm −3 ; while the high density plasma is energized, continuously introducing an amount of the at least one metal into the high density plasma from the distributed metal source such that the high density plasma includes a density of background gas, a density of ionized background gas, a density of neutral metal, and a density of metal ion; while continuously introducing the at least one metal, conformally depositing the film onto the high aspect ratio features of the substrate with a sidewall-to-field area thickness ratio that exceeds ½; and while the film is being conformally deposited, controlling the continuous introduction of the amount of the at least one metal such that the combined densities of neutral metal and metal ion in the high density plasma does not exceed the density of ionized background gas.