At&t Bell Laboratories

Thomas R Fullowan

Fan Ren

Stephen J Pearton

The present applicants have discovered that a layer predominantly comprising tungsten can be formed into precise patterns having substantially vertical walls by using titanium as a mask and plasma etching in a fluorine-containing plasma such as CF.sub.4 or SF.sub.6. The success of the process is believed attributable to the occurrence of an etch stop reaction on the sidewalls of the tungsten. The products of the reaction inhibit horizontal etching. After the tungsten is etched, the titanium mask can be selectively removed, as by etching in dilute HF. Each step in the process can be effected without subjecting the workpiece to voltage magnitudes in excess of 200 volts or temperatures outside the range between room temperature and 200.degree. C.

Method for forming patterned tungsten layers

Disclosed is a method of making semiconductor devices that comprises etching of a semiconductor layer, with a patterned metal layer acting as the etch mask. The patterned metal layer comprises a mask metal layer (exemplarily Ti) overlying a contact metal layer (exemplarily a Au-containing layer). In an exemplary embodiment the inventive method is used to manufacture InP-based heterojunction bipolar transistors.

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North Plainfield, NJ, United States of America

Thomas R Fullowan