Uniformity improvement for 200 mm APCVD epitaxial Si film by retrofit of Applied Materials Epi Centura

An upgrade kit for the 200 mm Applied Materials Epi Centura was released. The retrofit includes an alignment tool for the setup of the process kit, a motorized lift as well as a new susceptor design. The hardware parts were installed in an APCVD (Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition) production tool and tested in a production environment. The upgrade kit enables a reduction of the total range (max-min value) of the epi film thickness profile and a stable repeatability of the deposition process. A qualitative assessment of the new hardware during the production of an electrical device was carried out by analyzing sigma values of a PCM (Process Control Monitoring) parameter which is highly sensitive to variations in the epi thickness. The sigma of the PCM parameter from several lots, processed prior to the retrofit of the chamber and processed in the same chamber in the retrofitted state were compared and a reduction of the sigma value was observed when using the upgrade kit for the epi deposition.