Applied Materials, Inc.

Soumendra N Barman

Keith R Berding

Zhaozhao Zhu

Blake Erickson

Nitin K Ingle

Michael C Kutney

Michelle SanPedro

Abhijit Basu Mallick

Xikun Wang

Naomi Yoshida

Ralf Hofmann

Cara Beasley

Suresh Polali Narayana Rao

An article, apparatus, and method for detecting an etch rate uniformity in a processing chamber of an electronics processing system is provided. A device is placed in a processing chamber of an electronics processing system. The device includes a first layer deposited on a surface of the device and a second layer deposited on the first layer. The first layer is composed of a first sense material and the second layer is composed of an etch material. During an etch process at the processing chamber, a first amount of time from an initiation of the etch process to a detection of a first indication of completion of etching of the second layer at a first portion of the surface of the device is measured. The etch process etches the second layer of the device based on an initial set of etch parameter settings. A first etch rate of the processing chamber is determined based on the measured first amount of time and a thickness of the second layer. An optimized set of etch parameter settings to be applied at the processing chamber during subsequent etch processes is determined based on the first etch rate of the processing chamber.

In-situ etch rate and etch rate uniformity detection system

A system includes a memory, and at least one processing device, operatively coupled to the memory, to facilitate an etch recipe development process by performing operations including obtaining, from an optical detector, first material thickness data for a first material and second material thickness data for a second material resulting from an iteration of an etch process using an etch recipe. The first material is located at a first reflectometry measurement point and the second material is located at a second reflectometry measurement point different from the first reflectometry measurement point. The operations further include determining one or more etch parameters based on at least the first material thickness data and the second material thickness data.

Multiple reflectometry for measuring etch parameters

An article, apparatus, and method for detecting an etch material selectivity is provided. A device including a first layer and a second layer is placed in a processing chamber. The first layer includes a first sense material deposited on a first portion of the device and a second sense material deposited on a second portion of the device. The second layer deposited on the first layer includes an etch material. During an etch process based on an initial set of etch parameter settings, a first amount of time to etch the second layer at the first portion of the device and a second amount of time to etch the second layer at the second portion of the device are measured. A first etch rate and a second etch rate of the processing chamber is determined based on the measured first amount of time, the measured second amount of time, and a thickness of the second layer. A first selectivity of the first etch material and a second selectivity of the second etch material is determined based on the first etch rate and the second etch rate. An optimized set of etch parameter settings for subsequent etch processes is determined based on the determined selectivities.

In-situ etch material selectivity detection system

A system includes a memory and at least one processing device operatively coupled to the memory to facilitate an etch recipe development process by performing a number of operations. The operations include receiving a request to initiate an iteration of an etch process using an etch recipe to etch a plurality of materials each located at a respective one of a plurality of reflectometry measurement points, obtaining material thickness data for each of the plurality of materials resulting from the iteration of the etch process, and determining one or more etch parameters based on the material thickness data.

Methods are described herein for etching tantalum-containing films with various potential additives while still retaining other desirable patterned substrate portions. The methods include exposing a tantalum-containing film to a chlorine-containing precursor (e.g. Cl) with a concurrent plasma. The plasma-excited chlorine-containing precursor selectively etches the tantalum-containing film and other industrially-desirable additives. Chlorine is then removed from the substrate processing region. A hydrogen-containing precursor (e.g. H) is delivered to the substrate processing region (also with plasma excitation) to produce a relatively even and residue-free tantalum-containing surface. The methods presented remove tantalum while retaining materials elsewhere on the patterned substrate.

Tantalum-containing material removal

An extreme ultraviolet mirror or blank production system includes: a first deposition system for depositing a planarization layer over a semiconductor substrate; a second deposition system for depositing an ultra-smooth layer over the planarization layer, the ultra-smooth layer having reorganized molecules; and a third deposition system for depositing a multi-layer stack over the ultra-smooth layer. The extreme ultraviolet blank includes: a substrate; a planarization layer over the substrate; an ultra-smooth layer over the planarization layer, the ultra-smooth layer having reorganized molecules; a multi-layer stack; and capping layers over the multi-layer stack. An extreme ultraviolet lithography system includes: an extreme ultraviolet light source; a mirror for directing light from the extreme ultraviolet light source; a reticle stage for placing an extreme ultraviolet mask blank with a planarization layer and an ultra-smooth layer over the planarization layer; and a wafer stage for placing a wafer.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Soumendra N Barman