Applied Materials, Inc.

Lam Research Corporation

Timothy R Webb

Dmitry Lubomirsky

Avi Tepman

Harald Herchen

Peter K Loewenhardt

Diana Xiaobing Ma

Allen Richard Zhao

Donald J K Olgado

Son Trinh

Robert Guerra

Stephen F Powell

Jeffrey V Musser

Henan Hao

Daisuke Tajima

Celina M Esteban

An apparatus for providing an electrical bias to a substrate in a processing system is described. The apparatus generally includes a conductive annular body defining a central opening. The conductive annular body may have a substrate seating surface adapted to receive the substrate and a plurality of scallops formed on a surface opposing the substrate seating surface. A plurality of electrical contacts may be formed on the substrate seating surface opposite the plurality of scallops. The electrical contacts may be adapted to engage a plating surface of the substrate.

Plating uniformity control by contact ring shaping

A method of planarizing a metal conductive layer on a substrate is provided. In one embodiment, a substrate having a metal conductive layer disposed on a top surface of the substrate is provided on a substrate support. The substrate support is rotated and the top surface of the substrate is contacted with a liquid etching composition. The metal conductive layer is then exposed to an etchant gas in order to planarize the top surface of the metal conductive layer. Also provided is an apparatus for etching a metal conductive layer on a substrate. The apparatus comprises a container, a substrate support disposed in the container, a rotation actuator attached to the substrate support, and a fluid delivery assembly disposed in the container.

System for planarizing metal conductive layers

A method in a plasma processing chamber for etching through a selected portion of a metallization layer of a wafer's layer stack. The method includes the step of etching at least partially through the metallization layer of the layer stack with an etchant source gas that consists essentially of chlorine and nitrogen. In another embodiment, the metallization layer comprises aluminum, and the flow ratio of the chlorine to the nitrogen ranges from about 1:1 to about 10:1. More preferably, the flow ratio of the chlorine to the nitrogen ranges from about 1:1 to about 4:1 and preferably ranges from about 1:1 to about 2:1.

High density plasma etching of metallization layer using chlorine and

A method of etching a multicomponent alloy on a substrate, without forming etchant residue on the substrate, is described. In the method, the substrate is placed in a process chamber comprising a plasma generator and plasma electrodes. A process gas comprising a volumetric flow ratio V.sub.r of (i) a chlorine-containing gas capable of ionizing to form dissociated Cl.sup.+ plasma ions and non-dissociated Cl.sub.2.sup.+ plasma ions, and (ii) an inert gas capable of enhancing dissociation of the chlorine-containing gas, in introduced into the process chamber. The process gas is ionized to form plasma ions that energetically impinge on the substrate by (i) applying RF current at a first power level to the plasma generator, and (ii) applying RF current at a second power level to the plasma electrodes. The combination of (i) the volumetric flow ratio V.sub.r of the process gas and (ii) the power ratio P.sub.r of the first power level to the second power level, is selected so that the chlorine-containing etchant gas ionizes to form dissociated Cl.sup.+ plasma ions and non-dissociated Cl.sub.2.sup.+ plasma ions in a number ratio of at least about 0.6:1. The increased amount of dissociated Cl.sup.+ ions relative to non-dissociated Cl.sub.2.sup.+ ions etches the multicomponent alloy on the substrate at an etch rate of at least about 500 nm/min, without forming etchant residue on the substrate.

Plasma process for etching multicomponent alloys

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San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Timothy R Webb