Applied Materials, Inc.

Other

Lam Research Corporation

Bryan Y Pu

Hongching Shan

Jingbao Liu

Michael D Welch

Evans Yip Lee

Kenny Linh Doan

Claes H Bjorkman

Roger Alan Lindley

Paul E Luscher

Daniel John Hoffman

James D Carducci

Keiji Horioka

Hongqing Shan

Kallol Bera

Paul Brillhart

Ezra Robert Gold

Xiaoye Zhao

Bruno Geoffrion

Taeho Shin

Kuang-Han Ke

Qian Fu

Yunsang Kim

Hamid Noorbakhsh

Robert W Wu

Shenjian Liu

Richard Raymond Mett

Wonchul Lee

Mike Welch

Judy Wang

Zongyu Li

Richard Blume

Henry Fong

Takehiko Komatsu

Chun Yan

Siamak Salimian

Jong Mun Kim

Douglas H Burns

Ajey M Joshi

James Chang Wang

Mahmoud Dahimene

Ji Ding

Kaushik Vaidya

Panyin Hughes

Qi Li

Keji Horioka

Michael S Barnes

John Patrick Holland

Dan Maydan

Ling Chen

Ashok K Sinha

Alfred W Mak

Alexander Miller Paterson

Richard Charles Fovell

Shawming Ma

Diana Xiaobing Ma

Michael D Armacost

Steven C Shannon

Dennis Stanley Grimard

Semyon Sherstinsky

Ruiping Wang

Yan Rozenzon

Theodoros Panagopoulos

Brad L Mays

Richard W Plavidal

Michael G Chafin

Gerhard M Schneider

Troy S Detrick

Zhifeng Sui

Mohit Kumar Jain

Dong Ho Choi

Leonel Arturo Zuniga

Samuel C Wilson

Hong Ching Shan

Xue Yu Qian

Shing-Li Sung

Gil Lavi

Melody Chang

Hung Dao

Hongging Shan

Takehito Komatsu

Sue Zhang

Don Curry

Matt Hamrah

Neil E Hanson

Zhuxu Wang

A magnetic field generator which provides greater control over the magnetic field is provided. The magnetic field generator has a plurality of overlapping main magnetic coil sections for forming a magnetic field generally parallel to the top surface of the supporting member. In other embodiments, sub-magnetic coil sections are placed symmetrically around the main magnetic coil sections.

Method and apparatus for shaping a magnetic field in a magnetic field-enhanced plasma reactor

A method for etching a conductive layer through a mask with wider and narrower features is provided. A steady state etch gas is flowed. A steady state RF power is provided to form a plasma from the etch gas. A pulsed bias voltage is provided during the steady state etch gas flow, wherein the pulsed bias voltage has a frequency between 1 to 10,000 Hz. Wider and narrower features are etched into the conductive layer using the plasma formed from the etch gas.

Pulsed bias plasma process to control microloading

A method for etching features of different aspect ratios in a tungsten containing layer is provided. An etch gas is provided containing a tungsten etch component and a deposition component. A plasma is formed from the provided etch gas. A tungsten containing layer patterned with wide and narrow features is etched with the provided plasma.

Method of controlling etch microloading for a tungsten-containing layer

A plasma reactor for processing a workpiece such as a semiconductor wafer has a housing defining a process chamber, a workpiece support configured to support a workpiece within the chamber during processing and comprising a plasma bias power electrode. The reactor further includes plural gas sources containing different gas species, plural process gas inlets and an array of valves capable of coupling any of said plural gas sources to any of said plural process gas inlets. The reactor also includes a controller governing said array of valves and is programmed to change the flow rates of gases through said inlets over time. A ceiling plasma source power electrode of the reactor has plural gas injection zones coupled to the respective process gas inlets. In a preferred embodiment, the plural gas sources comprise supplies containing, respectively, fluorocarbon or fluorohydrocarbon species with respectively different ratios of carbon and fluorine chemistries. They further include an oxygen or nitrogen supply and a diluent gas supply. The controller is programmed to produce flow of different process gas species or mixtures thereof through different ones of said plural gas injection zones. The controller is further programmed to change over time the species content of the gases flowing through different ones of said plural gas injection zones.

Plasma reactor apparatus with multiple gas injection zones having time-changing separate configurable gas compositions for each zone

A plasma etch reactor for plasma enhanced etching of a workpiece such as a semiconductor wafer includes a housing defining a process chamber, a workpiece support configured to support a workpiece within the chamber during processing and comprising a plasma bias power electrode. The reactor further includes a first process gas inlet coupled to receive predominantly or pure oxygen gas and a second process gas inlet coupled to receive a polymerizing etch process gas. The reactor has a ceiling plasma source power electrode including a center circular gas disperser configured to receive a process gas from the first process gas inlet and to distribute the process gas into the chamber over the workpiece, and an inner annular gas disperser centered around the center gas disperser configured to receive the process gas from the second process gas inlet and to distribute the process gas into the chamber over the workpiece through an inner plurality of injection ports.

Plasma etch reactor with distribution of etch gases across a wafer surface and a polymer oxidizing gas in an independently fed center gas zone

A method and apparatus for controlling characteristics of a plasma in a semiconductor substrate processing chamber using a dual frequency RF source is provided. The method comprises supplying a first RF signal to a first electrode disposed in a processing chamber, and supplying a second RF signal to the first electrode, wherein an interaction between the first and second RF signals is used to control at least one characteristic of a plasma formed in the processing chamber.

Plasma control using dual cathode frequency mixing

In one embodiment of the present invention, a halogen-free plasma etch processes is used to define a feature in a multi-layered masking stack including an amorphous carbon layer. In a particular embodiment, oxygen (O), nitrogen (N), and carbon monoxide (CO) are utilized to etch the amorphous carbon layer to form a mask capable of producing sub-100 nm features in a substrate film having a reduced line edge roughness value. In another embodiment, the present invention employs an Oplasma pretreatment preceding the halogen-free amorphous carbon etch to first form an oxidized silicon region in a patterned photoresist layer to increase the selectivity of the amorphous carbon etch relative to a patterned photoresist layer containing unoxidized silicon.

Halogen-free amorphous carbon mask etch having high selectivity to photoresist

Methods for processing a substrate in a processing chamber using dual RF frequencies are provided herein. In some embodiments, a method of processing a substrate includes forming a plasma of a polymer forming chemistry to etch a feature into a substrate disposed on a substrate support in a process chamber while depositing a polymer on at least portions of the feature being etched. A low frequency and a high frequency RF signal are applied to an electrode disposed in the substrate support. The method further includes controlling the level of polymer formation on the substrate, wherein controlling the level of polymer formation comprises adjusting a power ratio of the high frequency to the low frequency RF signal.

Plasma control using dual cathode frequency mixing and controlling the level of polymer formation

A method for etching features of different aspect ratios in a conductive layer is provided. The method comprises: depositing over the conductive layer with an aspect ratio dependent deposition; etching features into the conductive layer with an aspect ratio dependent etching of the conductive layer; and repeating the depositing and the etching at least once.

Method for reducing microloading in etching high aspect ratio structures

A plasma etch process etches high aspect ratio openings in a dielectric film on a workpiece in a reactor having a ceiling electrode overlying the workpiece and an electrostatic chuck supporting the workpiece. The process includes injecting a polymerizing etch process gas through an annular zone of gas injection orifices in the ceiling electrode, and evacuating gas from the reactor through a pumping annulus surrounding an edge of the workpiece. The high aspect ratio openings are etched in the dielectric film with etch species derived from the etch process gas while depositing a polymer derived from the etch process gas onto the workpiece, by generating a plasma in the reactor by applying VHF source power and/or HF and/or LF bias power to the electrodes at the ceiling and/or the electrostatic chuck. The process further includes slowing the deposition rate of the polymer, minimizing etch stop and/or increasing the etch rate in a region of the workpiece typically the center by injecting oxygen or nitrogen and/or high-fluorine containing gas through gas injection orifice in the corresponding region of the ceiling electrode, and adjusting the flow rate of the oxygen or nitrogen and/or high-fluorine containing gas through the gas injection orifice to minimize the difference between profiles and etch depths at the workpiece center and the workpiece periphery.

Plasma etch process using polymerizing etch gases across a wafer surface and additional polymer managing or controlling gases in independently fed gas zones with time and spatial modulation of gas content

A plasma etch process for etching high aspect ratio openings in a dielectric film on a workpiece is carried out in a reactor having a ceiling electrode overlying the workpiece and an electrostatic chuck supporting the workpiece. The process includes injecting a first polymerizing etch process gas through a radially inward one of plural concentric gas injection zones in the ceiling electrode and injecting a second polymerizing etch process gas through a radially outward one of the plural concentric gas injection zones in the ceiling electrode, the compositions of the first and second process gases having first and second carbon-to-fluorine ratios that differ from one another. The process further includes evacuating gas from the reactor through a pumping annulus surrounding an edge of the workpiece, and etching the high aspect ratio openings in the dielectric film with etch species derived from the etch process gas while depositing a polymer derived from the etch process gas onto the workpiece, by generating a plasma in the reactor.

Plasma etch process with separately fed carbon-lean and carbon-rich polymerizing etch gases in independent inner and outer gas injection zones

A plasma etch process includes injecting process gases with different compositions of chemical species through different radial gas injection zones of an overhead electrode to establish a desired distribution of chemical species among the plural gas injection zones.

Plasma etch process using polymerizing etch gases with different etch and polymer-deposition rates in different radial gas injection zones with time modulation

A method of opening a carbon-based hardmask layer composed of amorphous carbon containing preferably at least 60% carbon and between 10 and 40% hydrogen. The hardmask is opened by plasma etching using an etching gas composed of H, N, and CO. The etching is preferably performed in a plasma etch reactor having an HF biased pedestal electrode and a capacitively VHF biased showerhead.

Process to open carbon based hardmask

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Bryan Y Pu