Applied Materials, Inc.

Hgst Netherlands, B.v.

Xiaoye Zhao

Yan Ye

Daniel John Hoffman

Kang-Lie Chiang

Douglas A Buchberger, Jr

Gerardo Delgadino

Dan Katz

Robert B Hagen

Ezra Robert Gold

Kallol Bera

Paul Brillhart

Bryan Y Pu

Matthew L Miller

Kenny Linh Doan

Bruno Geoffrion

Li-Qun Xia

Yunsang Kim

Jeremiah T P Pender

Neungho Shin

Joey Chiu

Fang Tian

Ellie Y Yieh

Shiang-Bau Wang

Ananda H Kumar

Hamid Noorbakhsh

Tzu-Fang Huang

Wen H Zhu

Hong Du

Hee Yeop Chae

Aron Pentek

Ashok K Sinha

Keiji Horioka

Shawming Ma

Diana Xiaobing Ma

Wen-Chiang Tu

Michael C Kutney

Gerald Zheyao Yin

Douglas H Burns

Guomin Mao

Mahmoud Dahimene

Chang-Lin Hsieh

Lihua Li

Hoiman Raymond Hung

Heeyeop Chae

Giuseppina Conti

Lihua Li Huang

Satyanarayana Myneni

Hairong Tang

Xian-Can Deng

Chung-Fu Chu

Write heads may be formed by reactive ion etching (RIE) a dielectric mask and then reactive ion etching a polymeric underlayer. The first RIE affects the second RIE. The first portion of the first RIE process is performed with a ratio of CFto CHFbetween about 1.3 to 2, a gas flow ratio of CFto He between 2.2 and about 3, and a ratio of RF source power to RF bias power between about 10 and about 16. The second portion of the first RIE process is performed with a ratio of CFto CHFbetween about 0.3 to 0.8, a gas flow ratio of CFto He between about 1.2 and about 1.8, and a ratio of RF source power to RF bias between about 22 to 28. With the above parameters, the dielectric mask can be formed with minimized damage on the underlayer.

Method for defect reduction in magnetic write head fabrication

A plasma reactor for processing a workpiece such as a semiconductor wafer has a housing defining a process chamber, a workpiece support configured to support a workpiece within the chamber during processing and comprising a plasma bias power electrode. The reactor further includes plural gas sources containing different gas species, plural process gas inlets and an array of valves capable of coupling any of said plural gas sources to any of said plural process gas inlets. The reactor also includes a controller governing said array of valves and is programmed to change the flow rates of gases through said inlets over time. A ceiling plasma source power electrode of the reactor has plural gas injection zones coupled to the respective process gas inlets. In a preferred embodiment, the plural gas sources comprise supplies containing, respectively, fluorocarbon or fluorohydrocarbon species with respectively different ratios of carbon and fluorine chemistries. They further include an oxygen or nitrogen supply and a diluent gas supply. The controller is programmed to produce flow of different process gas species or mixtures thereof through different ones of said plural gas injection zones. The controller is further programmed to change over time the species content of the gases flowing through different ones of said plural gas injection zones.

Plasma reactor apparatus with multiple gas injection zones having time-changing separate configurable gas compositions for each zone

In some implementations, a method is provided in a plasma processing chamber for stabilizing etch-rate distributions during a process transition from one process step to another process step. The method includes performing a pre-transition compensation of at least one other process parameter so as to avoid unstable plasma states by inhibiting formation of a parasitic plasma during the process transition. In some implementations, a method is provided for processing a workpiece in plasma processing chamber, which includes inhibiting deviations from an expected etch-rate distribution by avoiding unstable plasma states during a process transition from one process step to another process step.

Methods to avoid unstable plasma states during a process transition

A chamber dry cleaning process particularly useful after a dielectric plasma etch process which exposes an underlying copper metallization. After the dielectric etch process, the production wafer is removed from the chamber and a cleaning gas is excited into a plasma to clean the chamber walls and recover the dielectric etching characteristic of the chamber. Preferably, the cleaning gas is reducing such as hydrogen gas with the addition of nitrogen gas. Alternatively, the cleaning gas may an oxidizing gas. If the wafer pedestal is vacant during the cleaning, it is not electrically biased. If a dummy wafer is placed on the pedestal during cleaning, the pedestal is biased. The cleaning process is advantageously performed every wafer cycle.

Chamber recovery after opening barrier over copper

A plasma etch process etches high aspect ratio openings in a dielectric film on a workpiece in a reactor having a ceiling electrode overlying the workpiece and an electrostatic chuck supporting the workpiece. The process includes injecting a polymerizing etch process gas through an annular zone of gas injection orifices in the ceiling electrode, and evacuating gas from the reactor through a pumping annulus surrounding an edge of the workpiece. The high aspect ratio openings are etched in the dielectric film with etch species derived from the etch process gas while depositing a polymer derived from the etch process gas onto the workpiece, by generating a plasma in the reactor by applying VHF source power and/or HF and/or LF bias power to the electrodes at the ceiling and/or the electrostatic chuck. The process further includes slowing the deposition rate of the polymer, minimizing etch stop and/or increasing the etch rate in a region of the workpiece typically the center by injecting oxygen or nitrogen and/or high-fluorine containing gas through gas injection orifice in the corresponding region of the ceiling electrode, and adjusting the flow rate of the oxygen or nitrogen and/or high-fluorine containing gas through the gas injection orifice to minimize the difference between profiles and etch depths at the workpiece center and the workpiece periphery.

Plasma etch process using polymerizing etch gases across a wafer surface and additional polymer managing or controlling gases in independently fed gas zones with time and spatial modulation of gas content

A plasma etch process for etching high aspect ratio openings in a dielectric film on a workpiece is carried out in a reactor having a ceiling electrode overlying the workpiece and an electrostatic chuck supporting the workpiece. The process includes injecting a first polymerizing etch process gas through a radially inward one of plural concentric gas injection zones in the ceiling electrode and injecting a second polymerizing etch process gas through a radially outward one of the plural concentric gas injection zones in the ceiling electrode, the compositions of the first and second process gases having first and second carbon-to-fluorine ratios that differ from one another. The process further includes evacuating gas from the reactor through a pumping annulus surrounding an edge of the workpiece, and etching the high aspect ratio openings in the dielectric film with etch species derived from the etch process gas while depositing a polymer derived from the etch process gas onto the workpiece, by generating a plasma in the reactor.

Plasma etch process with separately fed carbon-lean and carbon-rich polymerizing etch gases in independent inner and outer gas injection zones

A method of fabricating an interconnect structure comprising etching a via into an upper low K dielectric layer and into a hardened portion of a lower low K dielectric layer. The via is defined by a pattern formed in a photoresist layer. The photoresist layer is then stripped, and a trench that circumscribes the via as defined by a hard mask is etched into the upper low K dielectric layer and, simultaneously, the via that was etched into the hardened portion of the lower low K dielectric layer is further etched into the lower low K dielectric layer. The result is a low K dielectric dual damascene structure.

Method of forming a low-K dual damascene interconnect structure

A plasma etch process includes injecting process gases with different compositions of chemical species through different radial gas injection zones of an overhead electrode to establish a desired distribution of chemical species among the plural gas injection zones.

Plasma etch process using polymerizing etch gases with different etch and polymer-deposition rates in different radial gas injection zones with time modulation

A method of fabricating an interconnect structure (e.g., dual damascene interconnect structure, and the like) of an integrated circuit device is disclosed. The interconnect structure is fabricated using a bi-layer mask comprising an imaging film and an organic planarizing film. The bi-layer mask is used to remove lithographic misalignment between a contact hole, a trench, and an underlying conductive line when the interconnect structure is formed. Additionally, a sacrificial layer may be used to protect an inter-metal dielectric (IMD) layer during subsequent planarization of the interconnect structure. The sacrificial layer may be formed of amorphous silicon (Si), titanium nitride (TiN), tungsten (W), and the like. The interconnect structure may be formed of a metal (e.g., copper (Cu), aluminum (Al), tantalum (Ti), tungsten (W), titanium (Ti), and the like) or a conductive compound (e.g., tantalum nitride (TaN), titanium nitride (TiN), tungsten nitride (WN), and the like).

Method of fabricating a dual damascene interconnect structure

A process of selectively etching a sacrificial light absorbing material (SLAM) over a dielectric material, such as carbon doped oxide, on a substrate using a plasma of a gas mixture in a plasma etch chamber. The gas mixture comprises a hydrofluorocarbon gas, an optional hydrogen-containing gas, an optional fluorine-rich fluorocarbon gas, a nitrogen gas, an oxygen gas, and an inert gas. The process could provide a SLAM to a dielectric material etching selectivity ratio greater than 10:1.

Selective etch process of a sacrificial light absorbing material (SLAM) over a dielectric material

The present invention includes a process for selectively etching a low-k dielectric material formed on a substrate using a plasma of a gas mixture in a plasma etch chamber. The gas mixture comprises a fluorine-rich fluorocarbon or hydrofluorocarbon gas, a nitrogen-containing gas, and one or more additive gases, such as a hydrogen-rich hydrofluorocarbon gas, an inert gas and/or a carbon-oxygen gas. The process provides a low-k dielectric to a photoresist mask etching selectivity ratio greater than about 5:1, a low-k dielectric to a barrier/liner layer etching selectivity ratio greater about 10:1, and a low-k dielectric etch rate higher than about 4000 &#x212b;/min.

Selective etching of carbon-doped low-k dielectrics

A plasma reactor for processing a semiconductor workpiece, includes a reactor chamber having a chamber wall and containing a workpiece support for holding the semiconductor support, the electrode comprising a portion of the chamber wall, an RF power generator for supplying power at a frequency of the generator to the overhead electrode and capable of maintaining a plasma within the chamber at a desired plasma ion density level. The overhead electrode has a capacitance such that the overhead electrode and the plasma formed in the chamber at the desired plasma ion density resonate together at an electrode-plasma resonant frequency, the frequency of the generator being at least near the electrode-plasma resonant frequency. The reactor further includes a set of MERIE magnets surrounding the plasma process area overlying the wafer surface that produce a slowly circulating magnetic field which stirs the plasma to improve plasma ion density distribution uniformity.

MERIE plasma reactor with overhead RF electrode tuned to the plasma with arcing suppression

A plasma reactor for processing a semiconductor workpiece, includes reactor chamber having a chamber wall and containing a workpiece support for holding the semiconductor support, the electrode comprising a portion of the chamber wall, an RF power generator for supplying power at a frequency of the generator to the overhead electrode and capable of maintaining a plasma within the chamber at a desired plasma ion density level. The overhead electrode has a capacitance such that the overhead electrode and the plasma formed in the chamber at the desired plasma ion density resonate together at an electrode-plasma resonant frequency, the frequency of the generator being at least near the electrode-plasma resonant frequency. The reactor further includes a set of MERIE magnets surrounding the plasma process area overlying the wafer surface that produce a slowly circulating magnetic field which stirs the plasma to improve plasma ion density distribution uniformity.

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Mountain View, CA, United States of America

Xiaoye Zhao