Applied Materials' Dielectric CVD Anti-Reflective Coating Technology Opens New Market for Advanced Lithography Applications; Plasma Silane Dielectric ARC Enhances i-Line and Deep UV Lithography with Enabling Technology.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 29, 1996--Applied Materials, Inc. has introduced a high-productivity silane-based chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process for anti-reflective coating (ARC) applications that opens a new market for the company's CVD products.

Compared to the organic spin-on ARC films typically used to enhance photolithography, the Dialectric ARC technology achieves tighter levels of critical dimension (CD) control in advanced (less than or equal to 0.35 micron) semiconductor devices, while simplifying the ARC scheme and cutting cost per wafer.

Dr. Ashok Sinha, president of Applied Materials' CVD Product Business Group, said, "This Dielectric ARC breakthrough is another example of our ability to commercialize existing technology to create new markets and thereby gain market share. This exciting new application of single-wafer CVD is technically far superior compared to a conventional spin-on ARC layer, by providing improved pattern transfer yields for emerging 0.35 micron applications. Customers in all geographic regions have already shown strong interest in this new process technology."

The new silane-based process has unique topographic and optical properties. Its highly conformal nature maintains a uniform thickness over device topography, overcoming the uniformity problems with self-planarizing spin-on films. This enables uniform CD control and exposure dose over a wide range of resist thicknesses on the device.

The process is also highly tunable, working equally well over metal or polysilicon, and with i-line and Deep UV (DUV) lithography. The Dielectric ARC film's refractive index and extinction coefficient can easily be optimized for different lithography wavelengths and substrate reflectance values to ensure minimum light reflection during the lithography exposure. With organic spin-on ARC films, optical properties are fixed, with no optimization possible for specific devices.

Dr. Dragan Ilic, general manager of Applied Materials' Dielectric CVD Division II, noted, "This process benefits from the well-known advantages of single-wafer CVD processing, including accuracy and repeatable thickness control of very thin films, typically 300 angstroms thick, as well as very uniform optical properties across the wafer. While this process has been under development for some time at Applied Materials, customers have only recently turned it into a production-proven application."

The Dielectric ARC process' cost of ownership is estimated at less than $1.20 per wafer, which is less than the cost of organic spin-on films. In addition, this plasma silane film has no shelf time sensitivity and uses far less chemicals -- an important consideration given today's environmental concerns. Using the company's Centura(R) platform, a three-chamber system can typically process 90 wafers per hour.

The single-step Dielectric ARC process also simplifies process flow by eliminating several steps required with organic spin-on films (including the oxygen dry etch step that can cause CD problems). With the Dielectric ARC, there is no need for ARC film removal because the film is compatible with the silicon dioxide layer that follows. However, the film is easily etched by conventional dry etch processes if desired. The process does not utilize any ammonia in its recipe, thus eliminating the potential to poison the sensitivity of DUV photoresist.

The Dielectric ARC process uses standard, production-proven plasma silane CVD chamber components, making it retrofittable to existing chambers with minor modifications. A typical configuration for maximum throughput is three chambers mounted on the Centura platform. It can also be ordered on the Precision 5000(R) platform.

The process is now qualified for logic and memory applications using DUV lithography. Customers globally are already using the Dielectric ARC process with i-line lithography in high-volume production, including memory chip makers in Japan, Korea and the U.S. The process is applicable to every type of device, from advanced logic and microprocessors to high-density memory devices.

Applied Materials, Inc. is a Fortune 500 global growth company and the world's largest supplier of wafer fabrication systems and services to the global semiconductor industry. Applied Materials is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol, "AMAT." Applied Materials' web site is http://www.AppliedMaterials.com.

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