Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Kun-tack Lee

Sang-rok Hah

Yong-pil Han

Im-Soo Park

Chang-ki Hong

Jeong-Nam Han

Moon-hee Lee

Kwang-wook Lee

Woo-gwan Shim

Dae-Hyuk Kang

Sang-yong Kim

Young-min Kwon

Hyo-san Lee

Jong-ho Chung

Bo-un Yoon

Yong-Sun Ko

Jung-Min Oh

Young-Hoo Kim

Sung-Il Cho

Seung-Pil Chung

Jae-Dong Lee

Sun-Jung Lee

Jong-won Lee

Hyung-Ho Ko

Chang-lyong Song

Kyu-whan Chang

Dae-Hong Eom

Provided are an apparatus and method for treating wafers using a supercritical fluid. The wafer treatment apparatus includes a plurality of chambers; a first supply supplying a first fluid in a supercritical state; a second supply supplying a mixture of the first fluid and a second fluid; a plurality of first and second valves; and a controller selecting a first chamber of the plurality of chambers for wafer treatment to control the open/closed state of each of the plurality of first valves so that the first fluid can be supplied only to the first chamber of the plurality of chambers and selecting a second chamber of the plurality of chambers to control the open/closed state of each of the plurality of second valves so that the mixture of the first fluid and a second fluid can be supplied only to the second chamber of the plurality of chambers. The wafer treatment method involves performing a predetermined treatment such as etching, cleaning or drying on wafers within only one of the plurality of chambers, followed by wafer treatment on the succeeding chamber, and thus allowing for sequential wafer treatment within each of the plurality of chambers.

Apparatus for treating wafers using supercritical fluid

An insulation layer may be formed on an object having a contact region. The insulation layer may be partially etched to form an opening exposing the contact region. A material layer including silicon and oxygen may be formed on the exposed contact region. A metal layer may be formed on the material layer including silicon and oxygen. The material layer including silicon and oxygen may be reacted with the metal layer to form a metal oxide silicide layer at least on the contact region. A conductive layer may be formed on the metal oxide silicide layer to fill up the opening.

Method of forming a contact structure

A method of fabricating a semiconductor device is provided. The method includes forming a mold for forming a storage electrode, forming sacrificial spacers at side walls of openings in the mold, forming a conductive film for a storage electrode along the inside of the openings, removing the mold by a wet etching process, removing the sacrificial spacers by a dry etching process, and sequentially forming a dielectric film and an upper electrode on the storage electrode.

Method of fabricating a semiconductor device

A method for removing an oxide layer such as a natural oxide layer and a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus which uses the method to remove the oxide layer. A vertically movable susceptor is installed at the lower portion in a processing chamber and a silicon wafer is loaded onto the susceptor when it is at the lower portion of the processing chamber. The air is exhausted from the processing chamber to form a vacuum condition therein. A hydrogen gas in a plasma state and a fluorine-containing gas are supplied into the processing chamber to induce a chemical reaction with the oxide layer on the silicon wafer, resulting in a reaction layer. Then, the susceptor is moved up to the upper portion of the processing chamber, to anneal the silicon wafer on the susceptor with a heater installed at the upper portion of the processing chamber, thus vaporizing the reaction layer. The vaporized reaction layer is exhausted out of the chamber. The oxide layer can be removed with a high selectivity while avoiding damage or contamination of the underlying layer.

Method of removing oxide layer and semiconductor manufacturing apparatus for removing oxide layer

An apparatus for cleaning a semiconductor wafer and method for cleaning a wafer using the same wherein, the apparatus includes a chamber on which a wafer is mounted, a revolving chuck mounted in the chamber for supporting and fixing the wafer, a nozzle for spraying cleaning solution onto the wafer, a cover for covering an upper part of the chamber, and a light source. The cleaning solution, preferably one of ozone water, hydrogen water, or electrolytic-ionized water, may be heated for a short time and used to clean the wafer.

Apparatus for cleaning semiconductor wafer including heating using a light source and method for cleaning wafer using the same

A semiconductor memory device is provided, including a substrate and storage nodes formed on the substrate from a silicon oxide layer, the layer having been substantially removed by wet etching the silicon oxide layer to a predetermined depth of the storage nodes and dry etching the remaining portion of the silicon oxide layer to expose the storage nodes.

Storage nodes of a semiconductor memory

The present application discloses a method of cleaning a semiconductor wafer by mounting a wafer to a chuck, positioning a gas guard, defining therein a chamber having an open bottom, immediately above the layer of water, spraying de-ionized water onto the wafer while rotating the chuck at a location outside the chamber when the wafer is mounted to the chuck, to thereby form a layer of water on the wafer, and spraying a cleaning gas from a gas spraying unit disposed above said chuck through the chamber and into the layer of water to thereby cause the cleaning gas to dissolve in the layer of water, and at the same time moving the chamber across a surface of the wafer, to thereby clean the wafer, wherein said gas spraying unit includes a gas injection tube oriented to inject the cleaning gas towards the wafer mounted to the chuck, and the gas guard connected to the gas injection tube.

Method of cleaning semiconductor wafer

A cleanling apparatus for removing contaminants from the surface of a substrate includes two parts: one which produces an aerosol including frozen particles and directs the aerosol onto the surface of the substrate to remove contaminants from the surface by physical force, and another part in which a fluid including a gaseous reactant is directed onto the surface of the substrate while the surface is irradiated to cause a chemical reaction between the reactant and organic contaminants on the surface, to chemically removing the organic contaminants. In the method of cleaning the substrate, the physical and chemical cleaning processes are carried out in a separate manner from one another so that the frozen particles of the aerosol are not exposed to the effects of the light used in irradiating the surface of the substrate. Therefore, the effectiveness of the aerosol in cleaning the substrate is maximized.

Method of and apparatus for removing contaminants from surface of a substrate

A cleaning solution for use in removing a damaged portion of a ferroelectric layer, and a cleaning method using the solution. The cleaning solution includes a fluoride, an organic acid with carboxyl group, an alkaline pH adjusting agent and water.

Cleaning solution for removing damaged portion of ferroelectric layer and cleaning method using the same

A method and semiconductor memory device are provided for manufacturing storage nodes using wet etching and dry etching including, when removing a silicon oxide layer including storage nodes, wet etching a portion of the silicon oxide layer using a buffered oxide etchant ('BOE') solution or a hydrogen fluoride ('HF') solution, and dry etching the remaining silicon oxide layer using a mixed gas of anhydrous HF, isopropyl alcohol (&#x201c;IPA&#x201d;) and vapor to thereby prevent short circuits caused by fallen storage nodes in the semiconductor memory device.

Method of manufacturing storage nodes of a semiconductor memory device using a two-step etching process

A semiconductor wafer cleaning apparatus includes a gas spraying unit, having a gas injection tube and a gas guard extending therearound, for spraying cleaning gas into a water layer formed on a wafer. The gas guard forms a small chamber just above the water layer, so that the partial pressure of gas injected from the gas injection tube is increased in the small chamber, whereupon the cleaning gas readily dissolves in the water layer. As a result, a cleaning solution having a high concentration of cleaning gas is produced, whereby the cleaning efficacy of the solution is high. Subsequently, a drying gas, such as isopropyl alcohol, for drying the wafer can be ejected onto the water layer using the gas spraying unit. Thus, the semiconductor wafer cleaning apparatus has a simple structure.

Single type of semiconductor wafer cleaning device

An apparatus for cleaning a semiconductor wafer and method for cleaning a wafer using the same wherein, the apparatus includes a chamber on which a wafer is mounted, a revolving chuck mounted in the chamber for supporting and fixing the wafer, a nozzle for spraying cleaning solution onto the wafer, a cover for covering an upper part of the chamber, a heating lamp fixed on an upper part of the cover for heating the wafer or the cleaning solution, a cooling water conduit surrounding the cover, and an antipollution plate mounted on a lower part of the heating lamp in the cover for preventing the heating lamp from being polluted by the cleaning solution. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the cleaning solution, preferably of ozone water, hydrogen water, or electrolytic-ionized water, is heated for a short time and used to clean the wafer.

Apparatus for cleaning semiconductor wafer and method for cleaning wafer using the same

A cleaning apparatus for removing contaminants from the surface of a substrate includes two parts: one which produces an aerosol including frozen particles and directs the aerosol onto the surface of the substrate to remove contaminants from the surface by physical force, and another part in which a fluid including a gaseous reactant is directed onto the surface of the substrate while the surface is irradiated to cause a chemical reaction between the reactant and organic contaminants on the surface, to chemically removing the organic contaminants. In the method of cleaning the substrate, the physical and chemical cleaning processes are carried out in a separate manner from one another so that the frozen particles of the aerosol are not exposed to the effects of the light used in irradiating the surface of the substrate. Therefore, the effectiveness of the aerosol in cleaning the substrate is maximized.

A method is provided for forming a metal interconnection using a plating process, which can improve the throughput and reliability of semiconductor devices by decreasing the required polishing in a chemical mechanical polishing process. A semiconductor device manufactured by this method is also provided. In the method of forming a metal interconnection, a recess region is formed in a portion of an insulation layer formed over a substrate, i.e., where a metal interconnection layer will be formed. A diffusion prevention layer is formed over the substrate, the insulation layer, and the recess region. Then, a metal seed layer is formed over the diffusion prevention layer only in the recess region using a chemical mechanical polishing process or an etch back process. A conductive plating layer is then formed on the metal seed layer only in the recess region. Thereafter, surface polarization is performed to form a metal interconnection layer in the recess region. The plating layer may be formed after forming the seed layer only in the bottom portion of the recess region.

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Suwon, South Korea

Kun-tack Lee