American Air Liquide, Inc.

L'air Liquide, Soci&#xe9;t&#xe9; Anonyme Pour L'etude Et L'exploitation Des Proc&#xe9;d&#xe9;s Georges Claude

Air Liquide Electronics U.S. LP

James Royer

Venkateswara R Pallem

Nathan Stafford

Rahul Gupta

Hui Sun

Vincent M Omarjee

Xiangyu Guo

Fabrizio Marchegiani

Vijay Surla

Cyclic etch methods comprise the steps of: i) exposing a SiN layer covering a structure on a substrate in a reaction chamber to a plasma of hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) to form a polymer layer deposited on the SiN layer that modifies the surface of the SiN layer, the HFC having a formula CHFwhere x=2-5, y>z, the HFC being a saturated or unsaturated, linear or cyclic HFC; ii) exposing the polymer layer deposited on the SiN layer to a plasma of an inert gas, the plasma of the inert gas removing the polymer layer deposited on the SiN layer and the modified surface of the SiN layer on an etch front; and iii) repeating the steps of i) and ii) until the SiN layer on the etch front is selectively removed, thereby forming a substantially vertically straight SiN spacer comprising the SiN layer on the sidewall of the structure.

Method to improve profile control during selective etching of silicon nitride spacers

Cyclic etch methods comprise the steps of: i) exposing a SiN layer covering a structure on a substrate in a reaction chamber to a plasma of hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) to form a polymer layer deposited on the SiN layer that modifies the surface of the SiN layer, the HFC having a formula CHFwhere x=2-5, y&#x3e;z, the HFC being a saturated or unsaturated, linear or cyclic HFC; ii) exposing the polymer layer deposited on the SiN layer to a plasma of an inert gas, the plasma of the inert gas removing the polymer layer deposited on the SiN layer and the modified surface of the SiN layer on an etch front; and iii) repeating the steps of i) and ii) until the SiN layer on the etch front is selectively removed, thereby forming a substantially vertically straight SiN spacer comprising the SiN layer on the sidewall of the structure.

A method for etching silicon-containing films is disclosed. The method includes the steps of introducing a vapor of an iodine-containing etching compound into a reaction chamber containing a silicon-containing film on a substrate, wherein the iodine-containing etching compound has the formula CHFI, wherein a=1-3, x=0-6, y=1-7, z=1-2, x+y+z=4 when a=1, x+y+z=4 or 6 when a=2, and x+y+z=6 or 8 when a=3; introducing an inert gas into the reaction chamber; and activating a plasma to produce an activated iodine-containing etching compound capable of etching the silicon-containing film from the substrate.

Iodine-containing compounds for etching semiconductor structures

A method for using a hydrofluorocarbon etching compound selected from the group consisting of 2,2,2-Trifluoroethanamine (CHFN), 1,1,2-Trifluoroethan-1-amine (Iso-CHFN), 2,2,3,3,3-Pentafluoropropylamine (CHFN), 1,1,1,3,3-Pentafluoro-2-Propanamine (Iso-CHFN), 1,1,1,3,3-Pentafluoro-(2R)-2-Propanamine (Iso-2R&#x2014;CHFN) and 1,1,1,3,3-Pentafluoro-(2S)-2-Propanamine (Iso-2S&#x2014;CHFN), 1,1,1,3,3,3-Hexafluoroisopropylamine (CHFN) and 1,1,2,3,3,3-Hexafluoro-1-Propanamine (Iso-CHFN) to selectively plasma etching silicon containing films, such as a dielectric antireflective coat (DARC) layer (e.g., SiON), alternating SiO/SiN layers, alternating SiO/p-Si layers, versus a photoresist layer and/or a hard mask layer (e.g., amorphous carbon layer), wherein the photoresist layer is reinforced and SiO/SiN and/or SiO/p-Si are etched non-selectively.

Hydrofluorocarbons containing &#x2014;NHfunctional group for 3D NAND and DRAM applications

Silicon nitride plasma etching processes are disclosed that minimize the SiN roughness layer on a substrate having a SiN layer thereon by simultaneously introducing an oxidizer at a predetermined flow rate and an etch gas into a plasma reaction chamber containing the substrate. The etch gas has the formula CHF, wherein x is 2-5, z is 1 or 2, 2x+2=y+z, and a fluorine atom is located on a terminal carbon atom of the etch gas.

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Newark, DE, United States of America

James Royer