Tokyo Electron Limited

Matthew Flaugh

Aelan Mosden

Subhadeep Kal

Yu-Hao Tsai

Mingmei Wang

Yusuke Muraki

Du Zhang

Pingshan Luan

Hamed Hajibabaeinajafabadi

Daisuke Ito

Jonathan Hollin

Selective protection and etching is provided which can be utilized in etching of a silicon containing layer with respect to a Ge or SiGe layer. In an example, the layers are stacked, and an oxide is on a side surface of the layers. A treatment is utilized to provide a modified surface or termination surface on side surfaces of the Ge/SiGe layers, and a heat treatment is provided after the gas treatment to selectively sublimate layer portions on side surfaces of the Si containing layers. The gas treatment and heat treatment are preferably in non-plasma environments. Thereafter, a plasma process is performed to form a protective layer on the Ge containing layers, and the Si containing layers can be etched with the plasma.

Selective and isotropic etch of silicon over silicon-germanium alloys and dielectrics; via new chemistry and surface modification

A method for the dry removal of a material on a microelectronic workpiece is described. The method includes receiving a substrate having a working surface exposing a metal layer and having at least one other material exposed or underneath the metal layer; and differentially etching the metal layer relative to the other material by exposing the substrate to a controlled gas-phase environment containing an anhydrous halogen compound.

Gas phase etch with controllable etch selectivity of metals

Methods for the atomic layer etch (ALE) of tungsten or other metal layers are disclosed that use in part sequential oxidation and reduction of tungsten/metal layers to achieve target etch parameters. For one embodiment, a metal layer is first oxidized to form a metal oxide layer and an underlying metal layer. The metal oxide layer is then reduced to form a surface metal layer and an underlying metal oxide layer. The surface metal layer is then removed to leave the underlying metal oxide layer and the underlying metal layer. Further, the oxidizing, reducing, and removing processes can be repeated to achieve a target etch depth. In addition, a target etch rate can also achieved for each process cycle of oxidizing, reducing, and removing.

Atomic layer etch (ALE) of tungsten or other metal layers

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Matthew Flaugh