Applied Producer DARC (Dielectric Anti-Reflective Coating) PECVD (Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition) is the industry-leading anti-reflective coating film for minimizing reflectivity, reducing photoresist poisoning, and improving photoresist adhesion for ≤90nm technologies. Used in conjunction with Applied Materials’ APF (Advanced Patterning Film) strippable CVD hardmask, the APF/DARC film stack provides litho-enabling solutions for improved etch selectivity, CD control, and line edge roughness. Offering a wide tuning range of refractive index and extinction coefficient values for unmatched reflectivity control across multiple applications, these films can be integrated in-situ with other CVD dielectrics for high efficiency and low cost of ownership.

DARC 193 offers a nitrogen-free film to minimize photoresist poisoning and improve photoresist adhesion. In addition to traditional gate, polysilicon and aluminum interconnect lithography applications, DARC 193 is an ideal candidate for dual damascene interconnect schemes with its excellent adhesion to low k dielectric films.

The Applied DARC 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.