Lam Research Corporation

Other

Intel Corporation

Mattson Technology, Inc

Linda N Marquez

Janet M Flanner

Joel M Cook

Helen H Zhu

Ivelin A Angelov

Joon Hong Park

Ian J Morey

Ivan L Berry, Iii

Oleh Karpenko

Rao Annapragada

Ervin T Hill

Pilyeon Park

Tinghao Frank Wang

Faisal Yaqoob

Bayu Thedjoisworo

Jason Lee Treadwell

Cristian Siladie

Adrian Doe

Prashant Gadgil

Gordon T McGarvey

Cecilia Laura Quinteros

Steven M Kennedy

A gas injector for a substrate processing system includes a first injector housing including a base portion defining a first gas flow channel; a projecting portion extending from the base portion; and a second gas flow channel extending through the base portion and the projecting portion. The gas injector includes a second injector housing including a first cavity including a first opening, a second opening and a first plurality of gas through holes arranged around the second opening. The first gas flow channel communicates with the first plurality of gas through holes. The second injector housing includes a second cavity that includes a second plurality of gas through holes and that extends from the second opening of the first cavity. The second gas flow channel communicates with the second plurality of gas through holes. Gas in the first and second gas flow channels flows into a processing chamber without mixing.

Substrate processing chamber including multiple gas injection points and dual injector

Methods of selectively etching silicon nitride on a semiconductor substrate by providing silicon to the plasma to achieve high etch selectivity of silicon nitride to silicon-containing materials are provided. Methods involve providing silicon from a solid or fluidic silicon source or both. A solid silicon source may be upstream of a substrate, such as at or near a showerhead of a process chamber, or in a remote plasma generator. A silicon gas source may be flowed to the plasma during etch.

Method for achieving ultra-high selectivity while etching silicon nitride

Method and apparatus for cleaning a substrate having a plurality of high-aspect ratio openings are disclosed. A substrate can be provided in a plasma processing chamber, where the substrate includes the plurality of high-aspect ratio openings, the plurality of high-aspect ratio openings are defined by vertical structures having alternating layers of oxide and nitride or alternating layers of oxide and polysilicon. The substrate can include a silicon oxide layer over a damaged or amorphous silicon layer in the high-aspect ratio openings. To remove the silicon oxide layer, a bias power can be applied in the plasma processing chamber at a low pressure, and a fluorine-based species can be used to etch the silicon oxide layer. To remove the underlying damaged or amorphous silicon layer, a source power and a bias power can be applied in the plasma processing chamber, and a hydrogen-based species can be used to etch the damaged or amorphous silicon layer.

Contact clean in high-aspect ratio structures

Methods for forming microlenses on a semiconductor substrate are provided. An inductively coupled plasma etch process using a process gas that includes a mixture of CFand CHFcan be used to modify the lens shape of a plurality of microlens objects located on a semiconductor substrate to meet microlens specifications in terms of curvature, height, length, shape, and/or distance between adjacent microlens objects on the substrate. The inductively coupled plasma process can be performed in an inductively coupled plasma processing apparatus that includes a grounded Faraday shield to prevent any capacitive coupling during the plasma etching process to reduce sputtering of the microlens surface.

Methods for forming microlenses

The manually pushed swing involves a vertical pole that is anchored into the ground via a concrete base, wherein a swing top mounts atop said pole and enables a plurality of swings seats and push handles to be connected thereon. The push handles enable a non-occupant to propel the plurality of swing seats around the pole via a bearing. The manually pushed swing is ideally suited for outdoor use.

Manually pushed swing

A method of forming a thin film stack on a substrate, wherein the thin film stack includes at least a polysilicon layer and an oxide layer; forming a hardmask layer on the thin film stack; forming an anti-reflective coating (ARC) layer on the hardmask layer; patterning the ARC layer; etching the hardmask layer using the patterned ARC layer as a mask; and etching the thin film stack using the hardmask layer as a mask.

Method and apparatus for self-aligned MOS patterning

The invention relates to a method of etching a feature in an oxide layer using a photoresist mask, the oxide layer being disposed above an underlying layer of a substrate inside an inductively-coupled plasma processing chamber. The method includes flowing an etchant source gas that includes CH,F,,C,F,and O,or C,H,F,,C,F,and O,into the plasma processing chamber. The method further includes forming a plasma from the etchant source gas. The method additionally includes etching through the oxide layer of the substrate with the plasma, wherein the etching substantially stops on the underlying layer, the underlying being one of a silicon layer, a tungsten-based layer or a TiN layer.

High aspect ratio sub-micron contact etch process in an inductively-coupled plasma processing system

In a plasma processing chamber, a method for etching through a selected portion of an oxide layer of a wafer's layer stack to create a self-aligned contact opening is described. The wafer stack includes a substrate, a polysilicon layer disposed above the substrate, a nitride layer disposed above said polysilicon layer and the oxide layer disposed above the nitride layer. The method for etching includes etching through the oxide layer of the layer stack with a chemistry and a set of process parameters. The chemistry essentially includes C.sub.2 HF.sub.5 and CH.sub.2 F.sub.2 and the set of process parameters facilitate etching through the oxide layer without creating a spiked etch and etching the oxide layer through to the substrate without substantially damaging the nitride layer.

Self-aligned contacts for semiconductor device

A plasma, formed from a mixture of C.sub.4 F.sub.8 and CH.sub.2 F.sub.2, is used to etch a self-aligned contact, the self-aligned contact being an opening in the oxide layer, the opening being aligned with an opening in an underlying nitride layer and extending to a substrate underlying the nitride. The mixture of C.sub.4 F.sub.8 and CH.sub.2 F.sub.2 provides a high ratio of oxide etch rate to nitride etch rate so that the etching is completed without substantially damaging the nitride layer. For thicker oxide layers a preliminary etch step using C.sub.2 F.sub.6 and C.sub.2 HF.sub.5 may be performed prior to using the mixture of C.sub.4 F.sub.8 and CH.sub.2 F.sub.2.

A method in a plasma processing chamber for fabricating a semiconductor device having a self-aligned contact. The method includes the step of providing a wafer having a substrate, a polysilicon layer disposed above the substrate, a nitride layer disposed above a polysilicon layer, and an oxide layer disposed above the nitride layer. The method further includes the step of etching in a first etching step partially through the oxide layer of the layer stack with a first chemistry and a first set of process parameters. In this first etching step, the first chemistry comprises essentially of CHF.sub.3 and C.sub.2 HF.sub.5. The method also includes the step of etching the oxide layer in a second etching step through to the substrate with a second chemistry comprising CHF.sub.3 and C.sub.2 HF.sub.5 and a second set of process parameters. The second set of process parameters is different from the first set of process parameters and represents a set of parameters for etching the oxide layer with a higher oxide-to-nitride selectivity than the oxide-to-nitride selectivity achieved in the first etching step.

Growing community of inventors

Fremont, CA, United States of America

Linda N Marquez