Applied Materials, Inc.

Leland Stanford Junior University

Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Ching-Mei Hsu

Nitin K Ingle

Anchuan Wang

Zhijun Chen

Zihui Li

Hiroshi Hamana

Dmitry Lubomirsky

Randhir P Thakur

Shankar Venkataraman

Xinglong Chen

Jiayin Huang

Jingchun Zhang

Seung H Park

Yi Cui

Shanhui Fan

Gaurav Thareja

Xikun Wang

Dongqing Yang

Jie Liu

Ashish Pal

Ajay Bhatnagar

Sankuei Lin

Zongfu Yu

Jia Zhu

Ludovic Godet

Friedrich B Prinz

Young Seen Lee

Ming Xia

Stephen T Connor

Jun Xue

Hanshen Zhang

George Burkhard

Sang Hyuk Kim

Cheng-Chieh Chao

Young Beom Kim

Weon Young Jung

Sang-jin Kim

Processing methods may be performed to form an airgap spacer on a semiconductor substrate. The methods may include forming a spacer structure including a first material and a second material different from the first material. The methods may include forming a source/drain structure. The source/drain structure may be offset from the second material of the spacer structure by at least one other material. The methods may also include etching the second material from the spacer structure to form the airgap. The source/drain structure may be unexposed to etchant materials during the etching.

Airgap formation processes

Exemplary methods for removing nitride may include flowing a fluorine-containing precursor into a remote plasma region of a semiconductor processing chamber. The methods may further include forming a plasma within the remote plasma region to generate plasma effluents of the fluorine-containing precursor and flowing the plasma effluents into a processing region of the semiconductor processing chamber housing a substrate. The substrate may include a high-aspect-ratio feature. The substrate may further include a region of exposed nitride and a region of exposed oxide. The methods may further include providing a hydrogen-containing precursor to the processing region to produce an etchant. At least a portion of the exposed nitride may be removed with the etchant.

Selective material removal

Systems, chambers, and processes are provided for controlling process defects caused by moisture contamination. The systems may provide configurations for chambers to perform multiple operations in a vacuum or controlled environment. The chambers may include configurations to provide additional processing capabilities in combination chamber designs. The methods may provide for the limiting, prevention, and correction of aging defects that may be caused as a result of etching processes performed by system tools.

Processing systems and methods for halide scavenging

A method of etching exposed silicon on patterned heterogeneous structures is described and includes a gas phase etch using plasma effluents formed in a remote plasma. The remote plasma excites a fluorine-containing precursor. Plasma effluents within the remote plasma are flowed into a substrate processing region where the plasma effluents combine with a hydrogen-containing precursor. The combination react with the patterned heterogeneous structures to remove an exposed silicon portion faster than a second exposed portion. The silicon selectivity results from the presence of an ion suppressor positioned between the remote plasma and the substrate processing region. The methods may be used to selectively remove silicon faster than silicon oxide, silicon nitride and a variety of metal-containing materials. The methods may be used to remove small etch amounts in a controlled manner and may result in an extremely smooth silicon surface.

Silicon selective removal

A method of anisotropically dry-etching exposed substrate material on a patterned substrate is described. The patterned substrate has a gap formed in a single material made from, for example, a silicon-containing material or a metal-containing material. The method includes directionally ion-implanting the patterned structure to implant the bottom of the gap without implanting substantially the walls of the gap. Subsequently, a remote plasma is formed using a fluorine-containing precursor to etch the patterned substrate such that either (1) the walls are selectively etched relative to the floor of the gap, or (2) the floor is selectively etched relative to the walls of the gap. Without ion implantation, the etch operation would be isotropic owing to the remote nature of the plasma excitation during the etch process.

Anisotropic gap etch

Methods of etching exposed titanium nitride with respect to other materials on patterned heterogeneous structures are described, and may include a remote plasma etch formed from a fluorine-containing precursor. Precursor combinations including plasma effluents from the remote plasma are flowed into a substrate processing region to etch the patterned structures with high titanium nitride selectivity under a variety of operating conditions. The methods may be used to remove titanium nitride at faster rates than a variety of metal, nitride, and oxide compounds.

Selective titanium nitride etching

A method of etching exposed silicon oxide on patterned heterogeneous structures is described and includes a remote plasma etch formed from a fluorine-containing precursor. Plasma effluents from the remote plasma are flowed into a substrate processing region where the plasma effluents combine with a nitrogen-and-hydrogen-containing precursor. Reactants thereby produced etch the patterned heterogeneous structures with high silicon oxide selectivity while the substrate is at high temperature compared to typical Siconi&#x2122; processes. The etch proceeds without producing residue on the substrate surface. The methods may be used to remove silicon oxide while removing little or no silicon, polysilicon, silicon nitride or titanium nitride.

Radical-component oxide etch

Methods of selectively etching tungsten relative to silicon-containing films (e.g. silicon oxide, silicon carbon nitride and (poly)silicon) as well as tungsten oxide are described. The methods include a remote plasma etch formed from a fluorine-containing precursor and/or hydrogen (H). Plasma effluents from the remote plasma are flowed into a substrate processing region where the plasma effluents react with the tungsten. The plasma effluents react with exposed surfaces and selectively remove tungsten while very slowly removing other exposed materials. Sequential and simultaneous methods are included to remove thin tungsten oxide which may, for example, result from exposure to the atmosphere.

Dry-etch for selective tungsten removal

A method of etching carbon films on patterned heterogeneous structures is described and includes a gas phase etch using remote plasma excitation. The remote plasma excites a fluorine-containing precursor and an oxygen-containing precursor, the plasma effluents created are flowed into a substrate processing region. The plasma effluents etch the carbon film more rapidly than silicon, silicon nitride, silicon carbide, silicon carbon nitride and silicon oxide.

Low temperature gas-phase carbon removal

Growing community of inventors

Stanford, CA, United States of America

Ching-Mei Hsu