United Microelectronics Corp.

Hung-Chen Yu

Tzung-Han Lee

Chun-Lung Chen

Hsi-Mao Hsiao

Yu-Chang Chow

Wen-Hua Cheng

Chih-Ming Chi

A waferless seasoning process is described, which waferless seasoning process is suitable for an etching chamber of an etching machine when the etching environment is so bad that etching cannot be performed. A dry cleaning process with a plasma formed by oxygen and hydrogen bromide is performed to restore the etching environment in the etching chamber.

Waferless seasoning process

A method is used to form a shallow trench isolation structure. According to the invention, prior to performing CMP on a HDPCVD oxide layer, a smoothing step is performed on the HDPCVD oxide layer to smooth the peak profile of the oxide layer to reduce the moment resulting from the CMP on the peak, and to prevent the later-formed shallow trench isolation structure from being pulled out. In addition, since the invention prevents the later-formed shallow trench isolation structure from being pulled out, the particles resulting from the oxide pulled out from the shallow trench are reduced. Thus, particle damage to the surface of the wafer is reduced.

Process for forming a shallow trench isolation structure

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Yi-Lan Hsien, Taiwan

Hung-Chen Yu