Patent ID: 7892406

Claim:
A method of operating a deposition system to perform a tantalum deposition process comprising: positioning a patterned substrate on a wafer table within a processing chamber; establishing a first set of process parameters during a preprocess time, including: flowing an argon process gas into the processing chamber from a gas supply system to the processing chamber, establishing a substrate temperature of less than 0 degrees C., and coupling an ICP power from an ICP source with an antenna to the processing chamber to create a high density plasma within the processing chamber; and during a processing time, exposing the patterned substrate to the high-density plasma and performing a net deposition step by depositing a tantalum barrier layer material into at least one feature on the patterned substrate while simultaneously etching tantalum barrier layer material from a field area of the patterned substrate by: maintaining the substrate temperature at less than 0 degrees C., coupling a target power from a target power source to a tantalum target positioned within the deposition system, the target power being greater than approximately 300 W and less than approximately 4000 W, coupling a variable magnetic field from a magnet assembly to the target to produce different magnetic fields over the target for a duration of the processing time; and substantially simultaneously controlling the coupling of the target power to the tantalum target with a coupling of an RF substrate bias power of less than approximately 300 W from an RF bias generator to the wafer table in the processing chamber to provide a net deposition rate of not more than approximately 10 nm/min for a duration of the processing time.