Applied Materials, Inc.

Yohei Kawase

Wei Liu

Michael D Willwerth

Meihua Shen

David Palagashvili

Jeng H Hwang

Shashank C Deshmukh

Barrett Finch

Seayoul Park

Eiichi Matsusue

Hideyuki Yamauchi

Anh-Kiet Quang Phan

Chen Tsan Ying

Jong I Shin

Methods for etching high-k material at high temperatures are provided. In one embodiment, a method etching high-k material on a substrate may include providing a substrate having a high-k material layer disposed thereon into an etch chamber, forming a plasma from an etching gas mixture including at least a halogen containing gas into the etch chamber, maintaining a temperature of an interior surface of the etch chamber in excess of about 100 degree Celsius while etching the high-k material layer in the presence of the plasma, and maintaining a substrate temperature between about 100 degree Celsius and about 250 degrees Celsius while etching the high-k material layer in the presence of the plasma.

Methods for high temperature etching a high-K material gate structure

In an embodiment of the present invention, a method is provided of patterning PZT layers or BST layers. For example, a PZT layer or a BST layer is plasma etched through a high-temperature-compatible mask such as a titanium nitride (TiN) mask, using a plasma feed gas comprising as a primary etchant boron trichloride (BCl ) or silicon tetrachloride (SiCi ). Although BCl or SiCl may be used alone as the etchant plasma source gas, it is typically used in combination with an essentially inert gas. Preferably the essentially inert gas is argon. Other potential essentially inert gases which may be used include xenon, krypton, and helium. In some instances O or N , or Cl , or a combination thereof may be added to the primary etchant to increase the etch rate of PZT or BST relative to adjacent materials, such as the high-temperature-compatible masking material. A TiN masking material can easily be removed without damaging underlying oxides. The selectivity of PZT or BST relative to TiN is very good, with the ratio of the etch rate of the PZT film to the etch rate of the TiN mask typically being better than 20:1. In addition, the etch rate for PZT using a BCl &mdash;comprising plasma source gas is typically in excess of 2,000 &angst; per minute. A substrate bias power is applied to direct ions produced from the BCl or SiCl toward the surface to be etched. The bias power is controlled to avoid sputtering of a conductive layer or layers in contact with the PZT layer, so that the surface of the etched PZT is not contaminated by a conductive material, which can cause the semiconductor device which includes the patterned PZT to short out.

Method of patterning lead zirconium titanate and barium strontium titanate

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Chiba, Japan

Yohei Kawase