Seagate Technology Incorporated

Cypress Semiconductor Corporation

Sriram Viswanathan

Christina L Hutchinson

Vinay Krishna

Sridhar Dubbaka

Peter R Keswick

Sheri Miller

Daniel Amzen

A method of forming a feature in a void, the method including filling the void having at least one sloped wall with a polymeric material; forming a layer of photoresist over the polymeric material; forming a gap in the layer of photoresist; and etching the polymeric material exposed by the gap in the layer of photoresist to form a feature.

Methods of forming features

A method is provided for cleaning a semiconductor topography having one or more contact openings etched through a dielectric layer formed on a substrate. The method substantially eliminates unfilled contacts and reduces contact defects. Generally, the method involves: (i) heating the substrate in a processing chamber to a predetermined temperature; (ii) generating a plasma upstream of the process chamber using a microwave generator and a process gas comprising nitrogen and hydrogen or argon and helium; and (iii) introducing the plasma into the process chamber to clean the semiconductor topography. As the clean is accomplished substantially without the use of an organic solvent, galvanic corrosion of contacts subsequently formed in the contact openings is substantially eliminated. Other embodiments are also described.

Process for post contact-etch clean

A method is provided for forming a borderless contact to a local interconnect (LI) line on a substrate. Generally, the method includes steps of (i) depositing a nitride layer over a number of LI lines on the substrate, to substantially cover the LI lines; (ii) etching the nitride layer to form spacers adjacent to sidewalls of at least one of the number of LI lines and to expose at least a portion of a top surface of the LI line; (iii) depositing an inter-layer dielectric, such as an oxide, over the number of LI lines on the substrate and the spacers formed adjacent thereto; and (iv) performing a contact etch to etch contact openings through the inter-layer dielectric to expose the portion of the top surface of the underlying LI line. Other embodiments are also disclosed.

Method of forming borderless contacts

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Chanhassen, MN, United States of America

Sriram Viswanathan