International Business Machines Corporation

William M Holber

Joseph S Logan

Alfred Grill

Michael S Barnes

David William Abraham

John C Forster

Hemantha Kumar Wickramasinghe

John H Keller

Jonathan Daniel Chapple-Sokol

James T Yeh

Henry J Grabarz

Tina J Cotler

Dragan Podlesnik

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

An electron cyclotron resonance plasma heating apparatus system and process in which microwave energy is transmitted directly in an axial direction through an evacuated chamber to generate energetic electrons. These energetic electrons spiral around the magnetic field lines formed by the solenoid and spiral substantially parallel to the axis. A metal atom vapor source transmits the metal atom vapor into the chamber through a housing port in the chamber wall. The metal atom vapor source in the housing is out of the line of sight of the substrate. The metal atoms are ionized by the energized electrons, and these ionized metal atoms are confined to the plasma column substantially free of neutral atoms as such ionized metal approaches and contacts the substrate in said evacuated chamber. In this way, the ionized metal atoms substantially avoid contact with the wall of chamber. A sputter target of a second metal may be placed in the plane of the substrate and a bias voltage applied to the target. Atoms of the second metal are then sputtered off and ionized by the plasma and are deposited on the substrate with the first metal ions.

Method and apparatus for filing high aspect patterns with metal

Multi-wavelength optical thermometry provides for non-contact measurement of the temperature of a sample where the front surface and the back surface of the sample are used in a interferometer to measure changes in optical path length. Laser beams at two different wavelengths are used and the beam phase of the two resultant interference signals is used to unambiguously measure the path length change over a broad temperature range.

Multi-wavelength optical thermometry

Electron cyclotron apparatus is described in which the locus of cyclotron resonance is scanned away from and toward the axis of a magnetic field by varying the strength of the magnetic field, the frequency of electromagnetic waves passing along its axis, or both.

Scanned electron cyclotron resonance plasma source

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New York, NY, United States of America

William M Holber