Patent ID: 7763522

Claim:
A method of high density plasma (HDP) gap-filling with a minimization of gas phase nucleation (GPN), comprising: (a) providing a substrate having a trench in a reaction chamber; (b) performing a first deposition step to partially fill a dielectric material in the trench; (c) performing an etch step to partially remove the dielectric material in the trench; and (d) performing a second deposition step to partially fill the dielectric material in the trench, wherein a reaction gas used in the second deposition step comprises a carrier gas, an oxygen-containing gas, a silicon-containing gas and a hydrogen-containing gas, and after the carrier gas and the oxygen-containing gas are introduced into the reaction chamber and a radio frequency (RF) power is turned on for a period of time, the silicon-containing gas and the hydrogen-containing gas are introduced into the reaction chamber, wherein in the second deposition step, after the carrier gas and the oxygen-containing gas are introduced into the reaction chamber and the RF power is turned on for a period of time, the silicon-containing gas is first introduced and then the hydrogen-containing gas is introduced into the reaction chamber, and a time interval after the silicon-containing gas is introduced into the reaction chamber and before the hydrogen-containing gas is introduced into the reaction chamber is greater than or equal to 1 second.