Applied Materials, Inc.

Intel Corporation

Steve S Mak

James S Papanu

Gerald Z Yin

Donald J Olgado

Yan Ye

Dan Maydan

Avi Tepman

Diana Xiaobing Ma

Gerald Zheyao Yin

Timothy D Driscoll

Frederick Chen

Chaoyang Li

Brian Shieh

Jian Ma

Phil Freiberger

Karmen Yung

Hong Shih

Peter K Loewenhardt

Arnold Kholodenko

Jian J Chen

Jeng H Hwang

Ian Scot Latchford

Nianci Han

Danny Chien Lu

Charles S Rhoades

Keshav B Prasad

Peter Chang-Lin Hsieh

Wesley George Lau

Mark Siegel

Victoria Yu-Wang

Karen A Williams

Carmel Ish-Shalom

Paul Martinez

An imaging structure such as a mask or reticle may be fabricated using a patterning layer on an imaging layer. The patterning layer may have substantially different etch properties than the imaging layer. A first etch process may be selective of the patterning layer with respect to a resist layer. A second etch process may be selective of the imaging layer with respect to the patterning layer.

Advanced mask patterning with patterning layer

A plasma etch reactor having interior surfaces facing the plasma composed of boron carbide, preferably principally composed of B.sub.4 C. The boron carbide may be a bulk sintered body or may be a layer of boron carbide coated on a chamber part. The boron carbide coating may be applied by thermal spraying, such as plasma spraying, by chemical vapor deposition, or by other layer forming technique such as a surface converting reaction. The boron carbide is highly resistant to high-density plasma etchants such as BCl.sub.3. The plasma sprayed coating is advantageously applied to only a portion of an anodized aluminum wall. The boron carbide may be sprayed over the exposed portion of the aluminum over which the anodization has been removed. A band of the aluminum substrate at the transition between the anodization and the boron carbide is roughened prior to anodization so that the boron carbide sticks to the correspondingly roughened surface of the anodization. Alternatively, the entire wall area of the anodized aluminum to be coated is roughened, and the boron carbide is sprayed over the anodization.

Boron carbide parts and coatings in a plasma reactor

An RF plasma etch reactor having an etch chamber with electrically conductive walls and a protective layer forming the portion of the walls facing the interior of the chamber. The protective layer prevents sputtering of material from the chamber walls by a plasma formed within the chamber. The etch reactor also has an inductive coil antenna disposed within the etch chamber which is used to generate the plasma by inductive coupling. Like the chamber walls, the inductive coil antenna is constructed to prevent sputtering of the material making up the antenna by the plasma. The coil antenna can take on any configuration (e.g. location, shape, orientation) that is necessary to achieve a desired power deposition pattern within the chamber. Examples of potential coil antenna configurations for achieving the desired power deposition pattern include constructing the coil antenna with a unitary or a segmented structure. The segmented structure involves the use of at least two coil segments wherein each segment is electrically isolated from the other segments and connected to a separate RF power signal. The unitary coil antenna or each of the coil segments can have a planar shape, a cylindrical shape, a truncated conical shape, a dome shape, or any combination thereof. The conductive walls are electrically grounded to serve as an electrical ground (i.e. anode) for a workpiece-supporting pedestal which is connected to a source of RF power to create a bias voltage at the surface of the workpiece.

RF plasma etch reactor with internal inductive coil antenna and

An electrically activated focus ring (90) for plasma processing a substrate (25) in a plasma zone comprises a dielectric barrier (92) with a plasma focusing surface (95) for focusing the plasma onto the substrate surface, and an opposing surface (98). The focus ring (90) comprises an electrical conductor element (100) abutting at least a portion of the opposing surface (98) of the dielectric barrier (92). The conductor element (100) is electrically isolated from the plasma and capable of being electrically charged to attract the plasma to reduce formation of deposits on the plasma focusing surface (95) of the dielectric barrier (92).

Self-cleaning focus ring

An apparatus (20) for uniformly processing substrates (25) having a surface with a center (80) and a peripheral edge (85). The apparatus (20) comprises (i) a process chamber (30) having a gas distributor (55) for distributing process gas in the process chamber (30); (ii) a support (75) for supporting a substrate (25) in the process chamber (30); (iii) a plasma generator for forming a plasma from the process gas in the process chamber (30); and (iv) a focus ring (90) in the process chamber (30). The focus ring (90) comprises (a) a wall (95) surrounding the substrate (25) to substantially contain the plasma on the substrate surface, and (b) a channel (100) in the wall (95). The channel (100) has an inlet (105) adjacent to, and extending substantially continuously around the peripheral edge (85) of the substrate surface. The inlet (105) of the channel (100) has a width w sized to allow a sufficient amount of process gas to flow into the channel (100) to maintain substantially equal processing rates at the center (80) and peripheral edge (85) of the substrate surface.

Process gas focusing apparatus and method

A gas injection system for injecting gases into a plasma reactor having a vacuum chamber with a sidewall, a pedestal for holding a semiconductor wafer to be processed, and a RF power applicator for applying RF power into the chamber. The gas injection system includes at least one gas supply containing gas, a gas distribution apparatus which has at least one slotted aperture facing the interior of the chamber, and one or more gas feed lines connecting the gas supply or supplies to the gas distribution apparatus. A preferred embodiment of a radial gas distribution apparatus in accordance with the present invention is disposed in the chamber sidewall and includes plural gas distribution nozzles each with a slotted aperture facing an interior of the chamber. Gas feed lines are employed to respectively connect each gas distribution nozzle to separate ones of the gas supplies.

Gas injection slit nozzle for a plasma process reactor

The present invention provides an apparatus and process for plasma cleaning the interior surfaces of semiconductor processing chambers. The method is directed to the dry etching of accumulated contaminant residues attached to the inner surfaces of the plasma processing chamber and includes introducing a cleaning gas mixture of a halogen-containing gas; activating a plasma in an environment substantially free of oxygen species; contacting the contaminant residues with the activated cleaning gas to volatilize the residues; and removing the gaseous by-products from the chamber. The etchant gaseous mixture comprises an even or greater amount of at least one fluorine-containing gas and an even or lesser amount of at least one chlorine-containing gas. The instant invention enables the intermittent use of the cleaning steps in an ongoing plasma processing of semiconductor wafers without chamber downtime and significant loss of wafer production.

Method and apparatus for cleaning by-products from plasma chamber

The invention is embodied in a gas injection apparatus for injecting gases into a plasma reactor vacuum chamber having a chamber housing, a pedestal holding a workpiece to be processed, a device for applying RF energy into the chamber, the gas injection apparatus having a gas supply containing an etchant species in a gas, an opening in the chamber housing, a gas distribution apparatus disposed within the opening in the chamber housing which has at least one slotted aperture facing the interior of the chamber and a device for controlling the flow rate of gas from the one or more slotted apertures, and a gas feed line from the supply to the gas distribution apparatus. In a preferred embodiment, the gas distribution apparatus includes a center member surrounded by at least one annular member with a gap therebetween comprising the slotted aperture. Preferably, each of the members of the gas distribution apparatus comprises a material at least nearly impervious to attack from the etchant species. In one example, each of the members of the gas distribution apparatus comprises one of a ceramic, fused quartz, polymeric or anodized aluminum material and the gas feed line comprises stainless steel. Preferably, each of the members has its surface polished prior to assembly of the gas distribution apparatus.

The invention is embodied in a gas injection apparatus for injecting gases into a plasma reactor vacuum chamber having a chamber housing, a pedestal holding a workpiece to be processed, means for applying RF energy into the chamber, the gas injection apparatus having a gas supply containing an etchant species in a gas, an opening in the chamber housing, a gas feed line from the supply to the opening in the chamber housing, and gas distribution apparatus near the opening in the chamber housing, the gas feed apparatus having at least one slit nozzle facing the interior of the chamber. In a preferred embodiment, the gas distribution apparatus includes a disk member surrounded by at least one annular member with a gap therebetween comprising the slit nozzle, the disk member and annular member blocking gas flow through the opening in the chamber housing. Preferably, each of the members of the gas distribution apparatus comprises a material at least nearly impervious to attack from the etchant species. In one example, each of the members of the gas distribution apparatus comprises one of ceramic, quartz, sapphire, polyimide or anodized aluminum and the gas feed line comprises stainless steel. Preferably, each of the members has its surface polished prior to assembly of the gas distribution apparatus.

A process for passivating, and optionally stripping and inhibiting corrosion of an etched substrate (20), is described. In the process, a substrate (20) having etchant byproducts (24) thereon, is placed into a vacuum chamber (52), and passivated in a multicycle passivation process comprising at least two passivating steps. In each passivating step, passivating gas is introduced into the vacuum chamber (52) and a plasma is generated from the passivating gas. When the substrate also has remnant resist (26) thereon, the resist (26) is stripped in a multicycle passivation and stripping process, each cycle including a passivating step and a stripping step. The stripping step is performed by introducing a stripping gas into the vacuum chamber (52) and generating a plasma from the stripping gas. In the multicycle process, the passivating and optional stripping steps, are repeated at least once in the same order that the steps were done. Alternatively, the substrate (20) can also be passivated in a single cycle process using a passivating gas comprising water vapor, oxygen, and nitrogen. Optionally, corrosion of the substrate is further inhibited by introducing an amine vapor into the vacuum chamber (52) so that amine adsorps onto the substrate (20), forming a corrosion inhibition amine layer on the surface of the substrate (20).

Passivating, stripping and corrosion inhibition of semiconductor

Growing community of inventors

Pleasanton, CA, United States of America

Steve S Mak