Lam Research Corporation

Seokhwan Lee

Yoshie Kimura

Ganesh Upadhyaya

Xiang Zhou

Noel Sun

Weiye Zhu

Zhaohong Han

Methods and apparatuses for passivating a fin field effect transistor (FinFET) semiconductor device and performing a gate etch using integrated atomic layer deposition (ALD) and etch processes are described herein. Methods include performing a partial gate etch, depositing a passivation layer on exposed surfaces of semiconductor fins and a gate layer by ALD, and performing a final gate etch to form one or more gate structures of the FinFET semiconductor device. The etch, deposition, and etch processes are performed in the same plasma chamber. The passivation layer is deposited on sidewalls of the gate layer to maintain a gate profile of the one or more gate structures during etching.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Seokhwan Lee