Lam Research Corporation

Prithu Sharma

Meihua Shen

Thorsten B Lill

John Hoang

Harmeet Singh

Jeffrey S Marks

Hui-Jung Wu

Nagraj Shankar

Samantha S H Tan

Wenbing Yang

Richard Janek

Thomas Joseph Knisley

Baosuo Zhou

Ji Zhu

Shuogang Huang

Methods and techniques for fabricating metal interconnects, lines, or vias by subtractive etching and liner deposition methods are provided. Methods involve depositing a blanket copper layer, removing regions of the blanket copper layer to form a pattern, treating the patterned metal, depositing a copper-dielectric interface material such that the copper-dielectric interface material adheres only to the patterned copper, depositing a dielectric barrier layer on the substrate, and depositing a dielectric bulk layer on the substrate.

Liner and barrier applications for subtractive metal integration

A method of opening a barrier film below copper structures in a stack is provided. A pulsed gas is provided into a plasma processing chamber, wherein the providing the pulsed gas comprises providing a pulsed Hcontaining gas and providing a pulsed halogen containing gas, wherein the pulsed Hcontaining gas and the pulsed halogen containing gas are pulsed out of phase, and wherein the pulsed Hcontaining gas has an Hhigh flow period and the pulsed halogen containing gas has a halogen containing gas high flow period, wherein the Hhigh flow period is greater than the halogen containing gas high flow period. The pulsed gas is formed into a plasma. The copper structures and the barrier film are exposed to the plasma, which etches the barrier film. In another embodiment, a wet and dry cyclical process may be used.

Method to etch copper barrier film

A method for etching a stack with at least one metal layer in one or more cycles is provided. An initiation step is preformed, transforming part of the at least one metal layer into metal oxide, metal halide, or lattice damaged metallic sites. A reactive step is performed providing one or more cycles, where each cycle comprises providing an organic solvent vapor to form a solvated metal, metal halide, or metal oxide state and providing an organic ligand solvent to form volatile organometallic compounds.

Method to etch non-volatile metal materials

A method for etching a stack with at least one metal layer in one or more cycles is provided. An initiation step is preformed, transforming part of the at least one metal layer into metal oxide, metal halide, or lattice damaged metallic sites. A reactive step is performed providing one or more cycles, where each cycle comprises providing an organic solvent vapor to form a solvated metal, metal halide, or metal oxide state and providing an organic ligand solvent to form volatile organometallic compounds. A desorption of the volatile organometallic compounds is performed.

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Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Prithu Sharma