Tokyo Electron Limited

Nec Corporation

Tel Manufacturing and Engineering of America, Inc.

Tocalo Co., Ltd.

Masaru Nishino

Shigeru Tahara

Kazuya Dobashi

Matthew C Gwinn

Kenichi Oyama

Vaidyanathan Balasubramaniam

Noriaki Okabe

Kelvin Kyaw Zin

Hiromitsu Kambara

Luis Fernandez

Sakurako Natori

Reo Kosaka

Masanobu Honda

Yao-Sheng Lee

Nobuyuki Nagayama

Kazuhiro Kubota

Koichiro Inazawa

Akinori Kitamura

Douglas M Trickett

Tsutomu Ito

Yannick Feurprier

Yoshinobu Ooya

Seiichi Kaise

Vinh Hoang Luong

Shinichi Kozuka

Ryosuke Niitsuma

Takao Funakubo

Tatsuya Handa

Shinobu Onodera

Shigeki Amemiya

Masatsugu Makabe

Ryotaro Midorikawa

Keigo Kobayashi

Vaidya Nathan Balasubramaniam

Hiroki Fujita

Atsushi Rikukawa

Tetsuya Niya

Chong Hwan Chu

A method of processing a substrate includes loading the substrate on a substrate holder. The substrate includes a major surface and a feature disposed over the major surface. The feature has a first width along an etch direction. The method includes exposing portions of the major surface and changing the first width of the feature to a second width along the etch direction by etching a first portion of the sidewalls of the feature with a gas cluster ion beam oriented along a beam direction.

Pattern enhancement using a gas cluster ion beam

A metal-containing deposit can be efficiently removed. A plasma processing method includes removing a deposit, which adheres to a member within a processing vessel and contains at least one of a transition metal and a base metal, by plasma of a processing gas containing a CxFy gas, in which x is an integer equal to or less than 2 and y is an integer equal to or less than 6, and without containing a chlorine-based gas and a nitrogen-based gas.

Plasma processing method and plasma processing apparatus

A method for purging a substrate container which accommodates in multiple stages a plurality of substrates to be processed by a substrate processing apparatus, the method includes: mounting the substrate container on a mounting unit; connecting a gas supply port provided in the substrate container and a gas supply line provided in a mounting unit; starting supply of a dry gas into the substrate container from a gas supply line before opening a cover of the substrate container; opening the cover of the substrate container while keeping the supply of the dry gas; closing the cover of the substrate container upon completion of processing of the substrates in the substrate container; and stopping the supply of the dry gas after closing the cover of the substrate container.

Method for purging a substrate container

When a substrate is etched by using a processing gas including a first gas containing halogen and carbon and having a carbon number of two or less per molecule, while supplying the processing gas toward the substrate independently from a central and a peripheral portion of a gas supply unit, which face the central and the periphery part of the substrate respectively, the processing gas is supplied such that a gas flow rate is greater in the central portion than in the peripheral portion. When the substrate is etched by using a processing gas including a second gas containing halogen and carbon and having a carbon number of three or more per molecule, the processing gas is supplied such that a gas flow rate is greater in the peripheral portion than in the central portion.

Etching apparatus

A plasma processing apparatus includes a processing chamber; a lower electrode serving as a mounting table for mounting thereon a target object; and an upper electrode or an antenna electrode provided to be opposite to the lower electrode. The apparatus further includes a gas supply source for introducing a gas including a halogen-containing gas and an oxygen gas into the processing chamber and a high frequency power supply for applying a high frequency power for generating plasma to at least one of the upper electrode, the antenna electrode, or the lower electrode. Among inner surfaces of the processing chamber which are exposed to the plasma, at least a part of or all of the surfaces between a mounting position of the target object and the upper electrode, or the antenna electrode; or at least a part of or all of the surfaces of the upper electrode or the antenna electrode are coated with a fluorinated compound.

Plasma processing apparatus and method

The substrate processing apparatus includes a process chamber which accommodates a wafer and performs a plasma etching process on the wafer, an exhaust chamber which communicates with the process chamber, an exhaust plate which divides the process chamber from the exhaust chamber and prevents plasma inside the process chamber from leaking into the exhaust chamber, and an upper electrode plate arranged inside the exhaust chamber, wherein the exhaust plate includes a plurality of through holes, and the upper electrode plate includes a plurality of through holes, is capable of contacting the exhaust plate in parallel, and is capable of being spaced apart from the exhaust plate.

Substrate processing apparatus and substrate processing method

A method of pattern etching a thin film on a substrate is described. The method comprises preparing a film stack on a substrate, wherein the film stack comprises a dielectric layer formed on the substrate and a mask layer formed above the dielectric layer. A pattern is created in the mask layer, and the pattern is transferred from the mask layer to the dielectric layer by performing a plasma etching process. While transferring the pattern to the dielectric layer, the mask layer is substantially removed using the plasma etching process. The plasma etching process can use a process gas comprising a first gaseous component that etches the dielectric layer at a greater rate than the mask layer, and a second gaseous component that etches the dielectric layer at a lesser rate than the mask layer.

Method of pattern etching a dielectric film while removing a mask layer

An input of a command to stop optical output or a command to reduce optical output by a main signal transmitting section is received from the outside. When the input of the optical output stop command or optical output reduction command is received, an inter-device control signal communication section transmits the optical output stop command or optical output reduction command. Based on the input optical output stop command or optical output reduction command, an output of optical signals from the main signal transmitting section is stopped, or else the output level is reduced to less than the output level during normal operation.

Optical communication device, optical communication system, optical output control method and program

A method of dry developing a multi-layer mask having a silicon-containing anti-reflective coating (ARC) layer on a substrate is described. The method comprises forming the multi-layer mask on the substrate, wherein the multi-layer mask comprises a lithographic layer overlying the silicon-containing ARC layer. A feature pattern is then formed in the lithographic layer using a lithographic process, wherein the feature pattern comprises a first critical dimension (CD). Thereafter, the feature pattern is transferred from the lithographic layer to the silicon-containing ARC layer using a dry plasma etching process, wherein the first CD in the lithographic layer is reduced to a second CD in the silicon-containing layer and a first edge roughness is reduced to a second edge roughness in the silicon-containing ARC layer.

Method for etching a silicon-containing ARC layer to reduce roughness and CD

Etching method and apparatus

A method for removing a mask layer and reducing damage to a patterned dielectric layer is described. The method comprises disposing a substrate in a plasma processing system, wherein the substrate has a dielectric layer formed thereon and a mask layer overlying the dielectric layer. A pattern is formed in the mask layer and a feature formed in the dielectric layer corresponding to the pattern as a result of an etching process used to transfer the pattern in the mask layer to the dielectric layer. The feature includes a sidewall with a first roughness resulting from the etching process. A process gas comprising COand CO is introduced into the plasma processing system, and plasma is formed. The mask layer is removed, and a second roughness, less than the first roughness, is produced by selecting a flow rate of the CO relative to a flow rate of the CO.

[object Object]

A process is provided for substrate ashing following the etching of features in a low dielectric constant (low-k) layer. The low-k layer can include ultra-low-k material, or a porous low-k material. The process may be configured to remove etch byproducts while preserving feature critical dimension. The ashing process comprises the use of a nitrogen and hydrogen containing chemistry with a passivation chemistry that includes oxygen, such as O, CO, or CO, or any combination thereof.

Damage-free ashing process and system for post low-k etch

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

Growing community of inventors

Miyagi, Japan

Masaru Nishino