Applied Materials, Inc.

Henry Fong

Bryan Y Pu

Michael D Welch

Hongching Shan

Hongqing Shan

James Chang Wang

Zongyu Li

Kuang-Han Ke

Yunsang Kim

Raymond Hoiman Hung

Roger Alan Lindley

Ajey M Joshi

Jeremiah T Pender

Thomas Joseph Kropewnicki

Charles Peter Auglis

Takehito Komatsu

A ring or collar surrounding a semiconductor workpiece in a plasma chamber. According to one aspect, the ring has an elevated collar portion having an inner surface oriented at an obtuse angle to the plane of the workpiece, this angle preferably being 135&deg;. This angular orientation causes ions bombarding the inner surface of the elevated collar to scatter in a direction more parallel to the plane of the workpiece, thereby reducing erosion of any dielectric shield at the perimeter of the workpiece, and ameliorating spatial non-uniformity in the plasma process due to any excess ion density near such perimeter. In a second aspect, the workpiece is surrounded by a dielectric shield, and the shield is covered by a non-dielectric ring which protects the dielectric shield from reaction with, or erosion by, the process gases. In a third aspect, the dielectric shield is thin enough to couple substantial power from the cathode to the plasma, thereby improving spatial uniformity of the plasma process near the perimeter of the workpiece. In a fourth aspect, azimuthal non-uniformities in process performance can be ameliorated by corresponding azimuthal variations in the dimensions of the elevated collar and/or the dielectric shield surrounding the workpiece.

Shield or ring surrounding semiconductor workpiece in plasma chamber

A substrate cleaning method comprises exposing a substrate to an energized process gas to remove residue 60 and resist material from the substrate In one version, the process gas comprises cleaning gas, such as an oxygen-containing gas, and an additive gas, such as NH . In one version, the process gas is introduced to remove residue and resist material from the substrate and to remove residue from surfaces in the process chamber

Substrate cleaning process

A photoresist plasma pretreatment performed prior to a plasma oxide etch. The plasma pretreatment is performed with an argon plasma or a carbon tetrafluoride and trifluoromethane plasma with lower power than in the main etch or is performed with a plasma of difluoromethane or trifluoromethane and carbon monoxide but no argon diluent gas. Thereby, striations on the oxide wall are reduced.

Plasma pretreatment of photoresist in an oxide etch process

Growing community of inventors

Daly City, CA, United States of America

Henry Fong