The Applied Producer APF (Advanced Patterning Film) PECVD (Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition) system delivers breakthrough strippable amorphous carbon hardmask technology for advanced lithography and etch patterning of shallow trench isolation (STI), gate, and contact features. Used in conjunction with Applied Materials’ DARC (Dielectric Anti-Reflective Coating) films, this cost-effective litho-enabling solution provides high etch selectivity for polysilicon and oxide, excellent CD control, and reduced line edge roughness to enable continued scaling using standard ArF lithography.

Applied Materials extends this innovative CVD hardmask technology with the next-generation Producer APF-e film to meet tighter CD control and pattern definition requirements of advanced Memory and Logic schemes. APF-e offers enhanced alignment mark visibility with increased light transmittance and improved step coverage, while maintaining the same high etch selectivity properties of the APF film.

The Applied APF processes run on the production-proven, high-throughput Producer platform. With its innovative Twin Chamber architecture, the Producer platform enables simultaneous processing of up to six wafers for superior productivity and significant reduction in cost of ownership with high system reliability. Platform extendibility enables customers to leverage the Producer toolset for multiple process nodes.