Hitachi-high-technologies Corporation

Hitachi, Ltd.

Kotaro Fujimoto

Takeshi Shimada

Yoshiaki Sato

Hironobu Kawahara

Kentaro Yamada

Tadamitsu Kanekiyo

Atsushi Yoshida

Yoshie Tanaka

The invention provides a dry etching method for processing a wafer having an Ru film formed on a thick AlOfilm to be used for a magnetic head, capable of realizing high selectivity. In the etching of a wafer having disposed on an NiCr filman AlOfilm, an Ru film, an SiOfilmand a resist mask, the Ru filmis etched via plasma using a processing gas containing Cland O(FIG.()), and thereafter, the Ru filmis used as a mask to etch the AlOfilmvia plasma using a gas mixture mainly containing BCland also containing Cland Ar (FIG.()).

[object Object]

To provide a cleaning method for an etching apparatus for a metal film that efficiently removes an etching residue deposited in an etching process chamber, assures the reproducibility of the etching performance, and keeps the etching process chamber in a low-dust-emission condition. Each time one workpiece with a metal film is etched (S), the interior of the vacuum chamber is cleaned by replacing the workpiece with a dummy substrate (S), performing a first step of plasma processing using oxygen (O) and carbon tetrafluoride (CF) to remove a carbon-based deposit pile (S), and performing a second step of plasma processing using boron trichloride (BCl) and chlorine (Cl) to remove a residue that could not be removed by the first step and an etching residue of the metal film (S).

Method of cleaning etching apparatus

The present invention provides a plasma etching method that can etch a metal film as a material to be etched selectively against an organic film underlying the material. The etching method comprising the steps of introducing an etching gas in an etching chamber wherein a material to be etched is placed, and exciting the etching gas to a plasma state to etch that material to be etched, wherein the material to be etched is a metal filmconsisting of Au, Pt, Ag, Ti, TiN, TiO, Al, an aluminum alloy, or a laminated film of these films laminated on an organic film; and the etching gas is a mixed gas containing at least a gas selected from a group consisting of Cl, BCl, and HBr; and at least a gas selected from a group consisting of CHCl, CHBr, CHCl, CHBr, CHF, and CH.

Plasma etching method

Disclosed is a method of dry-etching a sample (e.g., a wafer) having an aluminum system film structure to be etched. Etching is performed in a plasma, under reduced pressure, the plasma being formed from a gas mixture containing a halogen system gas (e.g., Cl.sub.2, HBr, BCl.sub.3, etc.) and a ROH gas (e.g., CH.sub.3 OH, C.sub.3 H.sub.5 OH, C.sub.5 H.sub.7 OH, CH.sub.3 COOH, HOCH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 OH, etc.). By incorporating the ROH gas with the halogen system gas, in etching, e.g., an aluminum system film structure, etching can be performed with an accurate shape corresponding to a mask pattern, irrespective of the pattern density. Moreover, the aluminum system film structure can be etched at a uniform speed irrespective of the pattern density; and a selection ratio for etching the aluminum system film structure, as compared with etching material (e.g., organic resist) of the mask, is improved.

Dry etching method

A sample treating method and apparatus adapted to treat a sample such as a semiconductor element substrate or the like and, particularly, a sample that must be etched and anticorrosion-treated. The adhered matters formed by the etching of the sample are removed from the sample sufficiently and easily when the etched sample is treated by utilizing the plasma of an anticorrosion gas that is capable of removing the adhered matters. There is required no wet-type anticorrosion treatment enabling the throughput to be improved in treating the samples that must be etched and anticorrosion-treated.

Growing community of inventors

Kudamatsu, Japan

Kotaro Fujimoto