Patent ID: 8912101

Claim:
A method for forming a silicon-containing dielectric film on a substrate by atomic layer deposition (ALD), comprising: (i) providing two precursors for forming a silicon-containing film, one precursor containing a halogen in its molecule, another precursor containing a silicon but no halogen in its molecule, said two precursors being reactive with each other in a gas phase; (ii) adsorbing a first precursor in a gas phase, which is one of the two precursors without the other of the two precursors, onto a substrate to deposit a monolayer of the first precursor; (iii) then adsorbing a second precursor in a gas phase, which is the other of the two precursors without the one of the two precursors, onto the monolayer of the first precursor to deposit a monolayer of the second precursor, wherein no radicals of a gas are supplied over the substrate between steps (ii) and (iii); (iv) exposing the monolayer of the second precursor to radicals of a treating gas to cause surface reaction with the radicals to form a compound monolayer of a silicon-containing film; and (v) repeating steps (ii) to (iv), which constitute one cycle of ALD, to form a silicon-containing dielectric film composed of multiple monolayers.