Texas Instruments Corporation

Tokyo Electron Limited

John Christopher Shriner

Abbas Ali

Henry Litzmann Edwards

Hongyu Henry Yue

Hieu A Lam

Christopher Scott Whitesell

Kevin Paul Wiederhold

Maja Imamovic

A method of fabricating an integrated circuit includes forming a first opening having a first width and a second opening having a second width in a first dielectric layer over a silicon substrate. The openings expose the silicon substrate and the exposed silicon substrate is oxidized to form first and second LOCOS structures having a first thickness. A polysilicon layer is formed over the silicon substrate, so that the polysilicon layer fills the first and second openings. A blanket etch of the polysilicon layer is performed to remove at least a portion of the polysilicon layer over the second LOCOS structure while leaving the first LOCOS structure protected by the polysilicon layer. The silicon substrate under the second LOCOS structure is further oxidized such that the second LOCOS structure has a second thickness greater than the first thickness.

Control of locos structure thickness without a mask

A plasma processing tool for fabricating a semiconductor device on a semiconductor wafer includes an optical window disposed on a plasma chamber, remotely from a plasma region. The window is thermally connected to an electrical heater element capable of maintaining the window at a temperature of at least 30&#xb0; C. A heater controller provides electrical power to the heater element. During operation of the plasma processing tool, the heater controller provides power to the heater element so as to maintain the window at a temperature of at least 30&#xb0; C. during at least a portion of a plasma process step in which by-products are produced in the plasma chamber.

Spectral reflectometry window heater

A method of etching a ferroelectric capacitor stack structure including conductive upper and lower plates with a ferroelectric material, such as lead-zirconium-titanate (PZT), therebetween, with each of these layers defined by the same hard mask element. The stack etch process involves a plasma etch with a fluorine-bearing species as an active species in the etch of the conductive plates, and a non-fluorine-bearing chemistry for etching the PZT ferroelectric material. An example of the fluorine-bearing species is CF. Endpoint detection can be used to detect the point at which the upper plate etch reaches the PZT, at which point the gases in the chamber are purged to avoid etching the PZT material with fluorine. A steeper sidewall angle for the capacitor structure can be obtained.

Method of etching ferroelectric capacitor stack

A method for constructing a process performance prediction model for a material processing system, the method including the steps of: recording tool data for a plurality of observations during a process in a process tool, the tool data comprises a plurality of tool data parameters; recording process performance data for the plurality of observations during the process in the process tool, the process performance data comprises one or more process performance parameters; performing a partial least squares analysis using the tool data and the process performance data; and computing correlation data from the partial least squares analysis.

Method and system for predicting process performance using material processing tool and sensor data

A plasma processing system that comprises a process chamber, a plasma source, a light detection device and a controller. The controller is useful for determining a seasoning state of the plasma processing system. The present invention further provides a method of determining the seasoning state of a plasma processing system comprising the steps of forming a first plasma in the process chamber utilizing the plasma source; measuring a first signal related to light emitted from the first plasma using the light detection device and storing the first signal using the controller; forming a second plasma in the process chamber utilizing the plasma source; measuring a second signal related to light emitted from the second plasma using the light detection device and storing the second signal using the controller; and correlating a change between the first signal and the second signal with a seasoning state of the plasma processing system.

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Allen, TX, United States of America

John Christopher Shriner