Lam Research Corporation

Novellus Systems Incorporated

Cypress Semiconductor Corporation

Jengyi Yu

Richard Stephan Wise

Yang Pan

Samantha S H Tan

Nader Shamma

Samantha SiamHwa Tan

Hui-Jung Wu

Boris Volosskiy

Seongjun Heo

Da Li

Yu Jiang

Sivananda K Kanakasabapathy

Chen-Wei Liang

Richard Alan Gottscho

Jun Xue

Alan John Jensen

Samantha Siamhwa Tan

Timothy William Weidman

Mary Anne Manumpil

Ge Yuan

Adrien Lavoie

Qinghuang Lin

Bart Jan Van Schravendijk

Pramod Subramonium

Wenbing Yang

Jerome S Hubacek

Daniel Peter

Yiwen Fan

Gengwei Jiang

Siva Krishnan Kanakasabapathy

Mohammed Haroon Alvi

Chi-I Lang

Jeffrey S Marks

Artur Kolics

Girish Anant Dixit

Roey Shaviv

Judy H Huang

George Andrew Antonelli

Nagraj Shankar

Haiying Fu

Keren Jacobs Kanarik

Somnath S Nag

Tze Wing Poon

Jennifer O'Loughlin

Praveen Nalla

Taeseung Kim

Liu Yang

Novy Sastrawati Tjokro

Wenxian Zhu

Alexander Kabansky

Tamal Mukherjee

Ran Lin

Atul Gupta

Younghee Lee

Katie Lynn Nardi

Waikit Fung

Siswanto Sutanto

Ka Shun Wong

Sanjeev Jain

Andrew Liang

Pingsheng Sun

Jeffrey Chih-Hou Lowe

Samantha Sh Tan

Jennifer O`Loughlin

This disclosure relates generally to a patterning structure including an underlayer and an imaging layer, as well as methods and apparatuses thereof. In particular embodiments, the underlayer provides an increase in radiation absorptivity and/or patterning performance of the imaging layer.

Underlayer for photoresist adhesion and dose reduction

A method of processing a substrate includes: providing a substrate having one or more mandrels comprising a mandrel material, wherein a layer of a spacer material coats horizontal surfaces and sidewalls of the one or more mandrels; and etching and completely removing the layer of the spacer material from the horizontal surfaces of the one or more mandrels and thereby exposing the mandrel material, without completely removing the spacer material residing at the sidewalls of the one or more mandrels. The etching includes exposing the substrate to a plasma formed using a mixture comprising a first gas and a polymer-forming gas, and wherein the etching comprises forming a polymer on the substrate. Polymer-forming gas may include carbon (C) and hydrogen (H).

Tin oxide films in semiconductor device manufacturing

A method for cleaning a plasma processing chamber comprising one or more cycles is provided. Each cycle comprises performing an oxygen containing plasma cleaning phase, performing a volatile chemistry type residue cleaning phase, and performing a fluorine containing plasma cleaning phase.

Method for cleaning a chamber

Tin oxide film on a semiconductor substrate is etched selectively in a presence of photoresist by exposing the substrate to at least one of hydrogen-based chemistry and chlorine-based chemistry. In some implementations, a method of processing a semiconductor substrate starts by providing a semiconductor substrate having a patterned photoresist layer overlying a tin oxide layer. Next, openings are etched in the tin oxide layer using the patterned photoresist layer as a mask, and using at least one of a hydrogen-based etch chemistry and a chlorine-based etch chemistry. After the openings have been etched in the tin oxide layer, the photoresist layer is removed using an oxygen-based etch chemistry.

Methods and apparatuses for performing cycles of aspect ratio dependent deposition and aspect ratio independent etching on lithographically patterned substrates are described herein. Methods are suitable for reducing variation of feature depths and/or aspect ratios between features formed and partially formed by lithography, some partially formed features being partially formed due to stochastic effects. Methods and apparatuses are suitable for processing a substrate having a photoresist after extreme ultraviolet lithography. Some methods involve cycles of deposition by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition and directional etching by atomic layer etching.

Eliminating yield impact of stochastics in lithography

Tin oxide films are used as spacers and hardmasks in semiconductor device manufacturing. In one method, tin oxide layer (e.g., spacer footing) needs to be selectively etched in a presence of an exposed silicon-containing layer, such as SiOC, SiON, SiONC, amorphous silicon, SiC, or SiN. In order to reduce damage to the silicon-containing layer the process involves passivating the silicon-containing layer towards a tin oxide etch chemistry, etching the tin oxide, and repeating passivation and etch in an alternating fashion. For example, passivation and etch can be each performed between 2-50 times. In one implementation, passivation is performed by treating the substrate with an oxygen-containing reactant, activated in a plasma, and the tin oxide etching is performed by a chlorine-based chemistry, such as using a mixture of Cland BCl.

Alternating etch and passivation process

Methods for making thin-films on semiconductor substrates, which may be patterned using EUV, include: depositing the organometallic polymer-like material onto the surface of the semiconductor substrate, exposing the surface to EUV to form a pattern, and developing the pattern for later transfer to underlying layers. The depositing operations may be performed by chemical vapor deposition (CVD), atomic layer deposition (ALD), and ALD with a CVD component, such as a discontinuous, ALD-like process in which metal precursors and counter-reactants are separated in either time or space.

Integrated dry processes for patterning radiation photoresist patterning

A method for cleaning surfaces of a substrate processing chamber includes a) supplying a first gas selected from a group consisting of silicon tetrachloride (SiCl), carbon tetrachloride (CCl), a hydrocarbon (CHwhere x and y are integers) and molecular chlorine (Cl), boron trichloride (BCl), and thionyl chloride (SOCl); b) striking plasma in the substrate processing chamber to etch the surfaces of the substrate processing chamber; c) extinguishing the plasma and evacuating the substrate processing chamber; d) supplying a second gas including fluorine species; e) striking plasma in the substrate processing chamber to etch the surfaces of the substrate processing chamber; and f) extinguishing the plasma and evacuating the substrate processing chamber.

Removing metal contamination from surfaces of a processing chamber

Tin oxide films are used as mandrels in semiconductor device manufacturing. In one implementation the process starts by patterning a tin oxide layer using at least one of a hydrogen-based etch chemistry and a chlorine-based etch chemistry, and using patterned photoresist as a mask, thereby providing a substrate having a plurality of protruding tin oxide features (mandrels). Next, a conformal layer of spacer material is formed both on the horizontal surfaces and on the sidewalls of the mandrels. The spacer material is then removed from the horizontal surfaces exposing the tin oxide material of the mandrels, without fully removing the spacer material residing at the sidewalls of the mandrels. Next, mandrels are selectively removed (e.g., using hydrogen-based etch chemistry), while leaving the spacer material that resided at the sidewalls of the mandrels. The resulting spacers can be used for patterning underlying layers on the substrate.

Tin oxide mandrels in patterning

Development of resists are useful, for example, to form a patterning mask in the context of high-resolution patterning. Development can be accomplished using a halide-containing chemistry such as a hydrogen halide. A metal-containing resist film may be deposited on a semiconductor substrate using a dry or wet deposition technique. The resist film may be an EUV-sensitive organo-metal oxide or organo-metal-containing thin film resist. After exposure, the photopatterned metal-containing resist is developed using wet or dry development.

Photoresist development with halide chemistries

Tin oxide film on a semiconductor substrate is etched selectively with an etch selectivity of at least 10 in a presence of silicon (Si), carbon (C), or a carbon-containing material (e.g., photoresist) by exposing the substrate to a process gas comprising hydrogen (H) and a hydrocarbon (e.g., at a hydrogen/hydrocarbon ratio of at least 5), such that a carbon-containing polymer is formed on the substrate. In some embodiments an apparatus for processing a semiconductor substrate includes a process chamber configured for housing the semiconductor substrate and a controller having program instructions on a non-transitory medium for causing selective etching of a tin oxide layer on a substrate in a presence of silicon, carbon, or a carbon-containing material by exposing the substrate to a plasma formed in a process gas that includes Hand a hydrocarbon.

Provided herein are methods and systems for reducing roughness of an EUV resist and improving etched features. The methods involve descumming an EUV resist, filling divots of the EUV resist, and protecting EUV resists with a cap. The resulting EUV resist has smoother features and increased selectivity to an underlying layer, which improves the quality of etched features. Following etching of the underlying layer, the cap may be removed.

Atomic layer etch and selective deposition process for extreme ultraviolet lithography resist improvement

A method for selectively etching a silicon oxide region with respect to a lower oxygen silicon containing region is provided. A sacrificial mask selectively deposited on the lower oxygen silicon containing region with respect to the silicon oxide region. An atomic layer etch selectively etches the silicon oxide region with respect to the sacrificial mask on the lower oxygen silicon containing region.

Selective etch using a sacrificial mask

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San Ramon, CA, United States of America

Jengyi Yu