Applied Producer Precision Selective Nitride PECVD 

From the inception of the metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) to the introduction of 3D FinFET structures and transition to gate-all-around (GAA) architectures, transistors have undergone a remarkable transformation to meet the demands of the most advanced semiconductor technology. With the emergence of GAA architectures, new challenges have emerged, such as shallow trench isolation (STI) oxide recess management and the need for novel material solutions to address these challenges.

Producer Precision^™ Selective Nitride is a selective, bottom‑up nitride deposition technology developed by Applied Materials to address critical STI integration challenges in advanced GAA transistor architectures. As device dimensions continue to scale, maintaining STI oxide height and integrity has become increasingly difficult due to aggressive downstream etch processes, leading to STI recess, increased parasitic capacitance, and degraded device performance. Precision Selective Nitride solves this problem by depositing nitride at the trench bottom. It acts as a robust STI protective layer, helping to preserve STI height, reduce parasitic capacitance, and enable stable device performance at advanced logic nodes.

The transition to GAA is a significant milestone in transistor architecture innovation, paving the way for enhanced device performance and energy efficiency. Novel material solutions are critical to meet some of the stringent gap fill requirements. The Precision Selective Nitride process uses a versatile deposition approach that can enable bottom-up deposition for a variety of gap fill applications.