International Business Machines Corporation

Tina J Cotler

Jonathan Daniel Chapple-Sokol

Jyothi Singh

Richard Anthony Conti

James Anthony O'Neill

Michael L Passow

Michael S Barnes

John C Forster

John H Keller

William M Holber

Dragan Podlesnik

Lawrence Andrew Kropp

An apparatus for processing a layer on a workpiece includes a source of reactant fluid, a reaction chamber having a support for the workpiece and a fluid delivery apparatus for feeding an input fluid into the reaction chamber with the input fluid being utilized to process the material. An infrared sensor is adapted to cooperate with the fluid delivery apparatus for sensing the concentration of a component of the input fluid. The infrared sensor includes an infrared light source positioned to direct a beam of infrared light at an infrared light detector through the input fluid. The infrared light detector produces an electrical output signal indicative of the amount of light received by the detector and therefore not absorbed by the input fluid.

Fluid delivery apparatus having an infrared feedline sensor

Silicon dioxide on a substrate is directionally etched using a hydrogen halide plasma which is created within an etch chamber. The method selectively etches silicon dioxide relative to polysilicon and silicon nitride. A substrate and the combination of NH.sub.3 and NF.sub.3 gases or the combination of CF.sub.4 and O.sub.2 gases mixed with H.sub.2 and N.sub.2 gases are located within an etch chamber. An electrical field is created within the etch chamber causing the gas mixture to form a plasma. The negative charge at the bottom of the chamber attracts the positively charged plasma, thereby etching the substrate in the downward direction. The result is an anisotropic product. The method is also shown to be effective in non-selectively etching thermal and deposited oxides, resulting in a similar etch rate for the different types of oxides.

Etching of silicon dioxide selectively to silicon nitride and polysilicon

Fluid delivery apparatus and method having an infrared feedline sensor

A non-intrusive means and method are disclosed for monitoring the interelectrode gap in a reaction chamber containing a pair of variably spaced, nominally parallel reaction-sustaining electrodes. An example is given in which the chamber is a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition chamber. The electrodes are treated as a parallel plate capacitor in order to measure the gap therebetween as well as the parallelism of the electrodes without requiring that the chamber be opened. A calibration curve is prepared by ascertaining known values of gaps by use of spacer gauges and then measuring and storing the corresponding values of the gaps and the capacitances. Once the calibration curve is established and stored, the spacing between the electrodes can be checked from time to time, as needed, without opening the chamber. It is only necessary to measure the capacitance existing and then refer the measured value to the stored values to read out the corresponding gap value. By making several capacitance measurements, a new curve can be made from time to time which can be compared as to slope with the stored calibration curve to check the parallelism of the electrodes.

Reaction chamber interelectrode gap monitoring by capacitance measurement

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Newburgh, NY, United States of America

Tina J Cotler