US Patent 7396565 Multiple precursor cyclical deposition system

Embodiments of the present invention relate to an apparatus and method of cyclical deposition utilizing three or more precursors in which delivery of at least two of the precursors to a substrate structure at least partially overlap. One embodiment of depositing a ternary material layer over a substrate structure comprises providing at least one cycle of gases to deposit a ternary material layer. One cycle comprises introducing a pulse of a first precursor, introducing a pulse of a second precursor, and introducing a pulse of a third precursor in which the pulse of the second precursor and the pulse of the third precursor at least partially overlap. In one aspect, the ternary material layer includes, but is not limited to, tungsten boron silicon (WBxSiy), titanium silicon nitride (TiSixNy), tantalum silicon nitride (TaSixNy), silicon oxynitride (SiOxNy), and hafnium silicon oxide (HfSixOy). In one aspect, the composition of the ternary material layer may be tuned by changing the flow ratio of the second precursor to the third precursor between cycles.