Applied Materials Announces New Film Deposition and Selective Etching Systems Enabling 3D Chip Scaling

New systems enabling high-precision materials engineering in high-aspect-ratio 3D logic and memory chip structures

Centris™ Spectral™ SiN ALD leverages breakthrough microwave plasma technology to deposit uniform silicon nitride (SiN) films within complex 3D structures

Producer™ Selectra™ Mo Etch enables 3D NAND scaling by selectively removing molybdenum to isolate wordlines

New systems adopted by leading logic and memory chipmakers for advanced-node manufacturing

Applied Materials, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMAT), a leader in materials engineering for the semiconductor industry, headquartered in Santa Clara, California, with President and CEO Gary E. Dickerson, announced on June 15 (local time) two new semiconductor manufacturing systems that enable precise processing of deeper, narrower 3D structures—addressing a critical challenge in advanced semiconductor manufacturing. The new deposition and etching systems support scaling extension in logic and memory chip manufacturing, contributing to higher performance, improved energy efficiency, and enhanced manufacturing yield for next-generation AI chips.

Driven by the rapid expansion of AI computing, the industry is accelerating its transition to advanced 3D device architectures, including gate-all-around (GAA) transistors and high-layer-count 3D NAND. As these vertical structures become deeper and narrower, conventional deposition and etching processes struggle to uniformly distribute materials from top to bottom, leading to variability that can degrade electrical performance and reduce yield.

To address this challenge, Applied Materials has introduced the Centris™ Spectral™ SiN ALD* and Producer™ Selectra™ Mo Etch systems. With these tools, semiconductor manufacturers can now precisely control both dielectric film deposition and metal removal in high-aspect-ratio structures. This enables more uniform materials engineering at advanced nodes, supporting continued 3D scaling across logic and memory applications while improving device performance, process control, and manufacturability.

Prabu Raja, President of the Semiconductor Products Group at Applied Materials, said: "As the industry pushes the boundaries of AI computing, the greatest growth opportunities are increasingly emerging from materials engineering. From transistor structures to memory stacks, semiconductor manufacturers are seeking new ways to achieve precise material deposition and selective material removal in highly complex 3D architectures. Through our latest deposition and selective etching systems, we deliver uniquely differentiated capabilities that help our customers overcome critical scaling challenges and accelerate the next wave of innovation in logic and memory."

Centris Spectral SiN ALD: Uniform Film Deposition in Complex 3D Structures

Silicon nitride (SiN) is a fundamental material used in various semiconductor manufacturing processes, including surface passivation, electrical isolation, and patterning spacer formation. SiN films must be deposited at low temperatures to protect adjacent fine features and must also exhibit high chemical stability to withstand harsh downstream processes.

Conventional plasma-based deposition struggles to uniformly process high-aspect-ratio structures in advanced 3D chip architectures, resulting in degraded SiN film quality. To solve this, Centris Spectral SiN ALD employs breakthrough high-density microwave plasma technology to deposit high-quality SiN films deep within high-aspect-ratio structures. This eliminates the trade-off between plasma density and ion damage that has limited conventional approaches. The system enables low-temperature deposition of dense, uniform SiN films even in complex 3D geometries.

The system is applicable to a wide range of applications, enabling further scaling in both DRAM and logic devices. For example, in GAA transistors, the system can form high-quality liners on transistor contacts, reducing interface resistance and parasitic capacitance—key factors in boosting device speed and performance.

Centris Spectral SiN ALD is the latest system built on Applied Materials’ new Spectral ALD platform. The Spectral ALD platform is a series of cutting-edge ALD tools featuring quad-reactor design, enabling high-precision precursor delivery, multiple plasma and thermal processing capabilities, and dedicated hardware for both time-based and spatial ALD processes—enabling the creation of advanced thin films critical for next-generation AI chips.

Spectral SiN ALD has already been adopted by multiple leading chipmakers. An animation demonstrating the system’s capabilities is available here.

Producer Selectra Mo Etch: Enabling 3D NAND Scaling through Selective Metal Removal

As the number of layers in 3D NAND increases, new metal integration steps are required, and conventional patterning methods are approaching their limits. Low-resistance metals such as molybdenum (Mo) are being adopted for wordline metallization, but to prevent shorts and minimize unwanted capacitance, individual wordlines must be precisely isolated. Wet etching has traditionally been used for wordline separation, but today’s high-aspect-ratio 3D stacks make it difficult for liquid-phase processes to reach the deepest parts of the structure. This results in top-heavy etch profiles, limiting device performance, yield, and scalability.

Producer Selectra Mo Etch introduces a new capability for highly selective metal removal, enabling precise and uniform wordline separation across the entire stack. By leveraging high-precision process control and advanced gas delivery, the system overcomes the limitations of wet etching, achieving uniform and tight profile control from top to bottom—even in deep, high-aspect-ratio structures.

The system reduces cell-to-cell variability in 3D NAND stacks, suppressing current leakage and improving data retention. Selectra Mo Etch has already been verified in high-volume manufacturing, establishing a new benchmark for selective metal etching and enabling the transition from conventional wet etching to next-generation 3D NAND scaling. The system extends the Selectra portfolio’s application from dielectrics and silicon to advanced metal integration, serving NAND, D