Tokyo Electron Limited

Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Fujitsu Corporation

Nec Corporation

Tokyo Electron Yamanashi Limited

Koichiro Inazawa

Shin Okamoto

Vaidyanathan Balasubramaniam

Masaaki Hagihara

Hisataka Hayashi

Masanobu Honda

Kazuya Nagaseki

Siddhartha Panda

Shoichiro Matsuyama

Yoshio Ishikawa

Akitoshi Harada

Tomoki Suemasa

Wakako Naito

Rich Wise

Yoshihiro Hayashi

Eiichi Nishimura

Yoshihide Kihara

Keiji Horioka

Takuya Mori

Makoto Sekine

Arpan Pravin Mahorowala

Masahiro Ogasawara

Noriyuki Kobayashi

Yoshifumi Tahara

Hiroshi Kudo

Masahito Sugiura

Yukimasa Yoshida

Itsuko Sakai

Akinori Kitamura

Masaru Nishino

Keizo Kinoshita

Nobuyuki Okayama

Takaya Matsushita

Takashi Asakawa

Rie Inazawa, Legal Representative

Kazuo Eguchi

Vaidya Nathan Balasubramaniam

Masato Hiratsuka

Rie Inazawa

Arpan Mahorawala

Mitsuru Ishikawa

The present invention is a plasma etching method including: an arranging step of arranging a pair of electrodes oppositely in a chamber and making one of the electrodes support a substrate to be processed in such a manner that the substrate is arranged between the electrodes, the substrate having an organic-material film and an inorganic-material film; and an etching step of applying a high-frequency electric power to at least one of the electrodes to form a high-frequency electric field between the pair of the electrodes, supplying a process gas into the chamber to form a plasma of the process gas by means of the electric field, and selectively plasma-etching the organic-material film of the substrate with respect to the inorganic-material film by means of the plasma; wherein a frequency of the high-frequency electric power applied to the at least one of the electrodes is 50 to 150 MHz in the etching step.

Plasma etching unit

A method for etching an organic anti-reflective coating (ARC) layer on a substrate in a plasma processing system comprising: introducing a process gas comprising ammonia (NH), and a passivation gas; forming a plasma from the process gas; and exposing the substrate to the plasma. The process gas can, for example, constitute NHand a hydrocarbon gas such as at least one of CH, CH, CH, CH, CH, CH, CH, CH, CH, CH, CH, CH, CH, CH, and CH. Additionally, the process chemistry can further comprise the addition of helium. The present invention further presents a method for forming a bilayer mask for etching a thin film on a substrate, wherein the method comprises: forming the thin film on the substrate; forming an ARC layer on the thin film; forming a photoresist pattern on the ARC layer; and transferring the photoresist pattern to the ARC layer with an etch process using a process gas comprising ammonia (NH), and a passivation gas.

Method and apparatus for multilayer photoresist dry development

A method is provided for low-pressure plasma ashing to remove photoresist remnants and etch residues that are formed during preceding plasma etching of dielectric layers. The ashing method uses a two-step plasma process involving an oxygen-containing gas, where low or zero bias is applied to the substrate in the first cleaning step to remove significant amount of photoresist remnants and etch residues from the substrate, in addition to etching and removing detrimental fluoro-carbon residues from the chamber surfaces. An increased bias is applied to the substrate in the second cleaning step to remove the remains of the photoresist and etch residues from the substrate. A chamber pressure less than 20 mTorr is utilized in the second cleaning step. The two-step process reduces the memory effect commonly observed in conventional one-step ashing processes. A method of endpoint detection can be used to monitor the ashing process.

Low-pressure removal of photoresist and etch residue

Plasma etching method and plasma etching unit

In an etching method for etching an etching target film formed on a substrate placed inside an airtight processing chamberby inducing a processing gas into the processing chamber, the processing gas contains CF, Nand Ar and the etching target film is constituted of an upper organic polysiloxane film and a lower inorganic SiOfilm. The flow rate ratio of CFand Nin the processing gas is essentially set within a range of 1&#x2266;(Nflow rate/CFflow rate)&#x2266;4. If (Nflow rate/CFflow rate) is less than 1, an etching stop occurs and, as a result, deep etching is not achieved. If, on the other hand, (Nflow rate/CFflow rate) is larger than 4, bowing tends to occur and, thus, a good etching shape is not achieved. Accordingly, the flow rate ratio of CFand Nin the processing gas should be set essentially within a range of 1&#x2266;(Nflow rate/CFflow rate)&#x2266;4, to ensure that improvements in both the selection ratio and the etching shape are achieved.

Etching method

In an etching method for achieving a dual damascene structure by using at least one layer of a low-k film and at least one layer of a hard mask, a dummy film, which is ultimately not left in the dual damascene structure, is formed in at least one layer over the hard mask in order to prevent shoulder sag. By adopting this method, a dual damascene structure in which the extent of the shoulder sag at the hard mask is minimized can be achieved through etching.

Method of etching dual damascene structure

A processing gas constituted of CHF, Oand Ar is introduced into a processing chamberof a plasma processing apparatus. The flow rate ratio of the constituents of the processing gas is set at CHF/O/Ar=20 sccm/10 sccm/100 sccm. The pressure inside the processing chamberis set at 50 mTorr. 500 W high frequency power with its frequency set at 13.56 MHz is applied to a lower electrode.on which a wafer W is placed. The processing gas is raised to plasma and thus, an SiNlayerformed on a Cu layeris etched. The exposed Cu layeris hardly oxidized and C and F are not injected into it.

Etching method and plasma processing method

A method for fabricating a semiconductor device that prevents the occurrence of bowing and thickness reduction in a dual damascene method. As shown in FIG.(B), silicon nitride etching is performed on a semiconductor device in process of fabrication which has a section shown in FIG.(A). As a result, part of a copper film is oxidized and changes into oxide. Moreover, a CFdeposit is formed on it. By performing organic insulating film etching by the use of hydrogen plasma in FIG.(C), however, the oxide is deoxidized to copper and the CFdeposit is converted into a volatile compound and is removed.

Method for fabricating a semiconductor device

An etching method comprises a step of forming a via hole structure based on a photoresist film layer () for forming a wiring pattern, a silicon oxide film layer () which is a hard mask layer formed under the photoresist film, and an organic Low-k film layer () formed under the hard mask layer, wherein in the step, the organic film layer and the organic Low-k film layer are etched by using a mixture gas of Ngas, Hgas, and a CF gas.

This semiconductor device includes a substrateto be processed, a first insulation filmarranged at a designated position on the substrateto have a via-hole, an organic filmformed on the first insulation filmand a second insulation filmformed on the organic film. Both of the organic filmand the second insulation filmhave a trenchin communication with the via-hole, in common. Additionally, a manufacturing method of this semiconductor device includes the processes of forming the organic filmon the substrateto be processed, forming a film having a designated pattern on the organic filmwhile exposing a part of the organic film, and removing the exposed part of the organic filmfrom the substrateto expose a foundation layer of the organic film

Semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof

A dual damascene structure with a lesser degree of shoulder loss is achieved. In a method for forming a dual damascene structure having a shoulder in an organic low k film layer by dry-etching the organic low k film layerand a mask layerformed over the organic low k filmusing at least two different mixed gases, a first step in which the mask layer is etched using a first process gas and then the organic low k film layer is etched into a predetermined depth by continuously using the first process gas and a second step following the first step, in which the organic low k film layer is etched using a second process gas are executed. Since a protective wall is formed at a side wall of a via during the first step, the extent of the shoulder loss occurring in the junction region where a trench and a via form a junction can be reduced.

A dry developing method for drawing a resist formed on a processed body by leading processing gas between parallel flat electrodes installed in a vacuum processing container and forming the plasma of the processing gas by applying a high frequency power to the electrodes, comprising the step of plasma-processing the resist on an etched layer having an already developed upper layer resist containing silicon and a lower layer resist installed in contact with the lower layer of the upper layer resist, wherein the lower layer resist is processed by a first process for plasma-processing by using the mixed gas of carbon monoxide gas and oxygen gas and a second step for plasma-processing by using the mixed gas of nitrogen gas and hydrogen gas, whereby an accurate drawing can be applied efficiently to the resist.

Dry developing method

A processing gas constituted of CH F , O and Ar is introduced into a processing chamber of a plasma processing apparatus . The flow rate ratio of the constituents of the processing gas is set at CH F /O /Ar&equals;20 sccm/10 sccm/100 sccm. The pressure inside the processing chamber is set at 50 mTorr. 500 W high frequency power with its frequency set at 13.56 Mz is applied to a lower electrode on which a wafer W is placed. The processing gas is raised to plasma and thus, an SiN layer formed on a Cu layer is etched. The exposed Cu layer is hardly oxidized and C and F are not injected into it.

Method of etching and method of plasma treatment

A wafer W is placed on a lower electrode provided inside a processing chamber of a plasma processing apparatus . A film constituted an organic polysiloxane, which is a Low-K material is formed at the wafer W. Plasma is generated inside the processing chamber to implement an etching process by using a photoresist film on the organic polysiloxane film as a mask and an opening pattern in which a portion of the organic polysiloxane film is exposed is formed. After the etching process, the wafer W is left inside the processing chamber . The pressure inside the processing chamber is set at a level within the range of 30 mTorr (4.00 Pa)&tilde;150 mTorr (20.0 Pa) by inducing a processing gas into the processing chamber and evacuating the gas from the processing chamber . At the pressure level the set, the gas inside the processing chamber is raised to plasma and the photoresist film is ashed. Thus, a plasma processing method which makes it possible to remove the photoresist film on the organic polysiloxane film without compromising the low dielectric constant characteristics of the organic polysiloxane film is achieved.

Plasma processing method

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Yamanashi, Japan

Koichiro Inazawa