| US 7,482,245 B1 | ||
| Stress profile modulation in STI gap fill | ||
| Jengyi Yu, San Ramon, Calif. (US); Chi-I Lang, Sunnyvale, Calif. (US); and Judy H. Huang, Los Gatos, Calif. (US) | ||
| Assigned to Novellus Systems, Inc., San Jose, Calif. (US) | ||
| Filed on Jun. 20, 2006, as Appl. No. 11/471,958. | ||
| Int. Cl. H01L 21/76 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 438—435 [438/424; 257/E21.545] | 22 Claims |
| 1. A method of forming a shallow trench isolation (STI) feature, the method comprising:
(a) providing a substrate having a trench to be filled in a reaction chamber, the reaction chamber capable of maintaining
a high density plasma;
(b) partially filling the trench on the substrate with a first portion of deposited dielectric using a high density plasma
chemical vapor deposition process having conditions configured to produce a first stress condition in the first portion of
deposited dielectric;
(c) modifying a deposition process condition to produce a different stress condition in deposited dielectric; and
(d) further filling the partially-filled trench using the modified deposition process to produce additional dielectric;
whereby the STI feature having sequentially modulated stress in the axis of the trench results.
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