Patent ID: 6890597

Claim:
A method for forming a film over a substrate, the method comprising: flowing a process gas into a process chamber having a first set of gas nozzles positioned to provide a flow of gas at a periphery of the substrate and a second set of gas nozzles positioned to provide a flow of gas above an upper surface of the substrate, the process gas including precursor gases and a fluent gas, wherein the fluent gas is flowed through the first and second sets of gas nozzles; forming a high-density plasma from the process gas to deposit the film with a deposition process having simultaneous deposition and sputtering contributions to provide a net deposition rate that varies across the substrate in accordance with relative flow rates of the fluent gas through the first and second sets of nozzles; polishing the film with a polishing process having an etch rate that varies across the substrate, wherein the net deposition and etch rates combine such that the film is substantially planar after polishing the film.