Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi-high-technologies Corporation

Katsuya Watanabe

Tetsunori Kaji

Toru Otsubo

Michinobu Mizumura

Yutaka Ohmoto

Katsuhiko Mitani

Junichi Tanaka

Shinichi Tachi

Takashi Sato

Ryooji Fukuyama

Eri Haikatak

Hideyuki Yamamoto

Toshio Masuda

Kazue Takahashi

Hironobu Kawahara

Mitsuru Suehiro

Ichiro Sasaki

Yoshiaki Sato

Keizo Suzuki

Seiichi Watanabe

Makoto Koizumi

Masayuki Kojima

Naoyuki Tamura

Sadayuki Okudaira

Saburo Kanai

Tadamitsu Kanekiyo

Hiroyuki Shichida

Makoto Nawata

Hideshi Fukumoto

Mamoru Yakushiji

Katsuyoshi Kudo

Takazumi Ishizu

Kenji Nakata

Yutaka Omoto

Ryoji Hamasaki

Tsuyoshi Yoshida

Ryouji Fukuyama

Shigeru Shirayone

Jyunichi Tanaka

Jun'ichi Tanaka

Syunji Sasabe

Takeshi Tsubaki

Hidenori Takesue

This invention relates to a method for etching an organic insulating film used in the production of semiconductor devices. A sample to be etched on which a low dielectric constant organic insulating film is formed is etched by generating a plasma from hydrogen gas and nitrogen gas or ammonia gas, and controlling the gas flow rate and pressure so that the light emission spectral intensity ratio of hydrogen atom and cyan molecule in the plasma comes to a prescribed value. By this method, a low dielectric constant organic insulating film as an insulating film between layers can be etched without using any etch stop layer so that bottom surfaces of trenches and holes for electrical wiring become flat.

Etching method of organic insulating film

After etching a Si-containing low permittivity insulating film with chlorine based gas, the etched wafer is subjected to an etching aftertreatment process comprising introducing oxygen gas to a vacuum processing chamber with a pressure as low as 0.2 Pa to 1 Pa and a flow rate as low as 5 cc to 20 cc/min, generating plasma within the chamber, heating the wafer 2 being subjected to aftertreatment between 50&#xb0; C. and 200&#xb0; C., applying a wafer bias power within the range of 50 W to 200 W, and exposing the wafer to the generated plasma, thereby simultaneously removing the photoresist components, the antireflection film components and the halogen components.

Etching aftertreatment method

A method of plasma-processing is provided which includes placing a sample on one of electrodes provided in a vacuum processing chamber and holding the sample onto the electrodes by an electrostatic attracting force. A processing gas is introduced into an environment in which said sample is placed, and the environment is evacuated to a pressure condition for processing said sample. The processing gas is then formed into a plasma under the pressure condition, the sample is processed by the plasma, and a pulse bias voltage having a pulse cycle of 0.1 &#x3bc;m to 10 &#x3bc;m is applied to the sample.

Plasma processing apparatus and plasma processing method

This invention relates to a method for etching an organic insulating film used in the production of semiconductor devices. A sample to be etched on which a low dielectric constant organic insulating film is formed and is etched by generating a plasma from hydrogen gas and nitrogen gas or ammonia gas, and controlling the gas flow rate and pressure so that the light emission spectral intensity ratio of hydrogen atom and cyan molecule in the plasma comes to a prescribed value. By this method, a low dielectric constant organic insulating film as an insulating film between layers can be etched without using any etch stop layer so that bottom surface of trenches and holes for electrical wiring become flat.

The vacuum processing apparatus has an atmospheric loader having a plurality of cassette tables and a transport unit for carrying wafers, a vacuum loader equipped with vacuum wafer-processing chambers and a vacuum transport chamber communicating with the processing chambers via gate valves, and a locking unit provided with a loading lock chamber and unloading lock chambers that have gate valves for connecting the atmospheric transport unit and vacuum transport chamber; wherein two etching chambers, formed by UHF-ECR reactors, are arranged symmetrically with respect to an axial line passing through the middle of the vacuum transport chamber and locking unit, only at the opposite side of the locking unit across the vacuum transport chamber, and at an acute angle with respect to the vacuum transport chamber, and UHF-ECR antennas, almost parallel to the foregoing axial line, are opened at the opposite side to that of the vacuum transport chamber.

Vacuum processing apparatus and a vacuum processing system

A plasma processing apparatus has plasma generating means including a means for generating capacitive coupled discharge and a means for radiating electromagnetic waves, so that the energy state of electrons is independently controlled by a combination of a plasma due to capacitive coupled discharge and a plasma due to radiation of electromagnetic waves of a high-frequency, to thereby control the occurrence of radical species, and thereby establishing a compatibility, for example, between high selective etching and high accuracy and high speed in etching or between film quality and film formation rate. Since the density distribution of the plasma can be controlled without any change in hardware configuration by adjusting distributions of the power for capacitive coupled discharge and the power for radiation of electromagnetic waves, the entire surface of a large-sized substrate can be etched at a high accuracy into a fine pattern. The apparatus is also intended to prevent the occurrence of dust caused by plasma processing and changes in characteristics of plasma processing, and hence to enhance productivity of semiconductor devices and/or liquid crystal display elements.

A plasma processing apparatus and a method therefor which can achieve a preferred process rate, a fine pattern process capability, a selectivity and uniformity of processing at the same time compatibly for a large size wafer, which effects are achieved by controlling the plasma state and the dissociation state of etching gas through control of the electron resonance through application of a magnetic field thereto. A high frequency power at 20-300 MHz is applied across a pair of electrodes in a vacuum process chamber, and a magnetic field is formed parallel to the plane of the electrodes in the space between the electrodes. By controlling the intensity of the magnetic field in a range of 100 gauss or smaller, formation of electron cyclotron resonance and electron sheath resonance occurring from interaction between the electrical field and the magnetic field in the electrode sheath portion is controlled. Thereby, the plasma state, i.e., the electron density, electron energy distribution and dissociation state of the process gas in the plasma, can be controlled. The magnetic field is generated by a plurality of coils, an outer shield, and pendant yoke to form magnetic field parallel to the plane of the electrodes in the space between the upper and the bottom electrodes.

Plasma processing system and plasma processing method

A plasma processing apparatus comprising a vacuum processing chamber, a plasma generating means including a pair of electrodes, a sample table for mounting a sample to be processed inside the vacuum processing chamber and also serving as one of the electrodes, and a evacuating means for evacuating the vacuum processing chamber, which further comprises a high frequency electric power source for applying an electric power of a VHF band from 50 MHz to 200 MHz between the pair of electrodes; and a magnetic field forming means for forming a static magnetic field or a low frequency magnetic field larger than 10 gausses and smaller than 110 gausses in a direction intersecting an electric field generated between the pair of electrodes and the vicinity by the high frequency electric power source; therein the magnetic field forming means being set so that a portion where a component of the magnetic field in a direction along the surface of the sample table becomes maximum is brought to a position in the opposite side of the sample table from the middle of the both electrodes; an electron cyclotron resonance region being formed between the both electrodes by the magnetic field and the electric field.

The present invention provides a microwave plasma processing method capable of processing an object layer having a minute configuration and a laminated object layer without producing any etch residue and of increasing the ratio of the etching selectivity of the object layer to those of a mask and the underlying layer when etching a laminated film. The intensity of a magnetic field created by solenoids surrounding a plasma processing chamber is varied to vary the distance between the object surface of a workpiece and a flat resonance region for etching an object layer and for overetching the object layer to vary the position of a plasma produced by the interaction of an electric field created by a microwave and the magnetic field created by the solenoids.

Microwave plasma processing method

Provided is a method of processing a sample by generating plasma by an electromagnetic wave, wherein a material containing carbon, such as silicon carbide (Sic), is disposed in a vacuum container serving as a discharge region. The inside of an etching chamber is cleaned by O.sub.2 cleaning treatment by using a sheet type dry etching apparatus, and after an inner wall temperature of the etching chamber is set and controlled, a sample is conveyed into the etching chamber, and a TiN cap layer, an Al--Cu alloy layer and a TiN barrier layer are plasma-etched in order by using BCl.sub.3 /Cl.sub.2 /CH.sub.4 /Ar gases with the pattern of a resist film as a mask.

Method and apparatus for plasma processing

A plasma processing apparatus and method are provided which are capable of easily performing precise working of a fine pattern on a large sized sample having a diameter of 300 mm or larger, and also capable of improving selectivity during micro processing. The apparatus includes a vacuum processing chamber, a plasma generating arrangement including a pair of electrodes, a sample table for mounting a sample to be processed inside the vacuum processing chamber and also serving as one of the electrodes, and an evacuating means for evacuating the vacuum processing chamber. The apparatus further includes a high frequency electric power source for applying an electric power of VHF band from 50 MHz to 200 MHz between the pair of electrodes. A magnetic field forming structure is also provided for forming a static magnetic field or a low frequency magnetic field larger than 10 gauss and smaller than 110 gauss in a direction intersecting an electric field generated between the pair of electrodes and in the vicinity thereof by the high frequency electric power source. The magnetic field forming structure is set so that a portion where a component of the magnetic field in a direction along the surface of the sample table becomes maximum is brought to a position on the opposite side of the sample table from the middle of the two electrodes. As a result, an electron cyclotron resonance region is formed between the upper and lower electrodes by the magnetic field and the electric field.

A microwave plasma processing method capable of processing an object layer having a minute configuration and a laminated object layer without producing any etch residue and of increasing the ratio of the etching selectivity of the object layer to those of a mask and an underlying layer when etching a laminated film. To achieve this, the intensity of a magnetic field created by solenoids surrounding a plasma processing chamber is varied to vary the distance between the object surface of a workpiece and a flat resonance region for etching an object layer and for overetching the object layer to vary the position of a plasma produced by the interaction of an electric field created by a microwave and the magnetic field created by the solenoids according to the layers being processed.

Microwave plasma processing method for preventing the production of etch

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Kudamatsu, Japan

Katsuya Watanabe