Applied Materials, Inc.

University of Illinois

Zhenjiang Cui

Anchuan Wang

Nitin K Ingle

Rohan Puligoru Reddy

Xiaolin C Chen

Hanshen Zhang

Mehul B Naik

Michael Santiago Cox

Baiwei Wang

Hichem M'Saad

Alexandros T Demos

Jie Liu

Oliver D Jan

Daniella Holm

Li-Qun Xia

Jun Zhao

Xikun Wang

Padmanabhan Krishnaraj

Annamalai Lakshmanan

Rick J Roberts

Francimar Campana Schmitt

Siliang Chang

Abhijit Basu Mallick

Juan Carlos Rocha-Alvarez

Mark Joseph Saly

Ganesh Balasubramanian

Deenesh Padhi

Bok Hoen Kim

Mikhail Korolik

Derek R Witty

Tzu-Fang Huang

Peter Wai-Man Lee

Sohyun Park

Mandar Balasaheb Pandit

Kiran V Thadani

Khaled A Elsheref

Lihua Li

Keenan Navarre Woods

Feiyue Ma

Jerry Sugiarto, Legal Representative

Christopher Dennis Bencher

Soonam Park

Shamouil Shamouilian

He Ren

Girish Anant Dixit

Reza Arghavani

Farhad K Moghadam

Zhijun Chen

Canfeng Lai

Lin Zhang

Thanh Ngoc Pham

Nagarajan Rajagopalan

Helen R Armer

Sang H Ahn

Seung H Park

Bruno Geoffrion

Albert Sanghyup Lee

Linlin Wang

Daemian Raj

Bikram Kapoor

Meiyee Shek

Lester A D'Cruz

Josephine J Chang

Xing Zhong

Christos G Takoudis

Kenneth MacWilliams

Steven Reiter

May Yu

Paddy Krishnaraj

Hichem M'Sadd

Embodiments of this disclosure provide methods for etching oxide materials. Some embodiments of this disclosure provide methods which selectively etch oxide materials over other materials. In some embodiments, the methods of this disclosure are performed by atomic layer etching (ALE). In some embodiments, the methods of this disclosure are performed within a processing chamber comprising a nickel chamber material.

Etching of metal oxides using fluorine and metal halides

Exemplary etching methods may include flowing a fluorine-containing precursor and a hydrogen-containing precursor into a remote plasma region of a semiconductor processing chamber. The methods may include forming a plasma of the fluorine-containing precursor and the hydrogen-containing precursor to produce plasma effluents. The methods may include flowing the plasma effluents into a substrate processing region housing a substrate. The substrate may include an exposed region of a tantalum or titanium material and an exposed region of a silicon-containing material. The methods may include contacting the substrate with the plasma effluents. The methods may include removing the tantalum or titanium material selectively to the silicon-containing material. The tantalum or titanium material may be removed at a rate of at least 20:1 relative to the silicon-containing material.

Systems and methods for selective metal compound removal

Exemplary etching methods may include modifying an exposed surface of a layer of metal oxide on a substrate housed in a processing region of a semiconductor processing chamber to produce a modified portion of metal oxide. The methods may include contacting the modified portion of metal oxide with a fluorine-containing precursor. The contacting may produce a metal oxy-fluoride material. The methods may include flowing an etchant precursor into the processing region. The methods may include contacting the metal oxy-fluoride material with the etchant precursor. The methods may include removing the metal oxy-fluoride material.

Metal oxide directional removal

Exemplary methods of etching may include flowing a fluorine-containing precursor and a secondary gas into a processing region of a semiconductor processing chamber. The secondary gas may be or include oxygen or nitrogen. A flow rate ratio of the fluorine-containing precursor to the secondary gas may be greater than or about 1:1. The methods may include contacting a substrate with the fluorine-containing precursor and the secondary gas. The substrate may include an exposed metal. The substrate may define a high aspect-ratio structure. The methods may include etching the exposed metal within the high aspect-ratio structure.

Metal deposition and etch in high aspect-ratio features

Exemplary etching methods may include flowing an oxygen-containing precursor into a processing region of a semiconductor processing chamber. The methods may include contacting a substrate housed in the processing region with the oxygen-containing precursor. The substrate may include an exposed region of a transition metal nitride and an exposed region of a metal. The contacting may form an oxidized portion of the transition metal nitride and an oxidized portion of the metal. The methods may include forming a plasma of a fluorine-containing precursor and a hydrogen-containing precursor to produce fluorine-containing plasma effluents. The methods may include removing the oxidized portion of the transition metal nitride to expose a non-oxidized portion of the transition metal nitride. The methods may include forming a plasma of a chlorine-containing precursor to produce chlorine-containing plasma effluents. The methods may include removing the non-oxidized portion of the transition metal nitride.

Selective removal of transition metal nitride materials

Exemplary etching methods may include flowing an oxygen-containing precursor into a processing region of a semiconductor processing chamber. The methods may include contacting a substrate housed in the processing region with the oxygen-containing precursor. The substrate may include an exposed region of ruthenium, and the contacting may produce ruthenium tetroxide. The methods may include vaporizing the ruthenium tetroxide from a surface of the exposed region of ruthenium. An amount of oxidized ruthenium may remain. The methods may include contacting the oxidized ruthenium with a hydrogen-containing precursor. The methods may include removing the oxidized ruthenium.

Selective removal of ruthenium-containing materials

Exemplary etching methods may include flowing a fluorine-containing precursor and a hydrogen-containing precursor into a remote plasma region of a semiconductor processing chamber. The hydrogen-containing precursor may be flowed at a flow rate of at least 2:1 relative to the flow rate of the fluorine-containing precursor. The methods may include forming a plasma of the fluorine-containing precursor and the hydrogen-containing precursor to produce plasma effluents. The methods may include flowing the plasma effluents into a substrate processing region housing a substrate. The substrate may include an exposed region of a tantalum or titanium material and an exposed region of a silicon-containing material or a metal. The methods may include contacting the substrate with the plasma effluents. The methods may include removing the tantalum or titanium material selectively to the silicon-containing material or the metal.

Exemplary etching methods may include flowing an oxygen-containing precursor into a remote plasma region of a semiconductor processing chamber while striking a plasma to produce oxygen plasma effluents. The methods may include contacting a substrate housed in a processing region with the oxygen plasma effluents. The substrate may define an exposed region of titanium nitride. The contacting may produce an oxidized surface on the titanium nitride. The methods may include flowing a halogen-containing precursor into a remote plasma region of a semiconductor processing chamber while striking a plasma to produce halogen plasma effluents. The methods may include contacting the oxidized surface on the titanium nitride with the halogen plasma effluents. The methods may include removing the oxidized surface on the titanium nitride.

Systems and methods for nitride-containing film removal

Exemplary etching methods may include flowing a halogen-containing precursor into a substrate processing region of a semiconductor processing chamber. The halogen-containing precursor may be characterized by a gas density greater than or about 5 g/L. The methods may include contacting a substrate housed in the substrate processing region with the halogen-containing precursor. The substrate may define an exposed region of a hafnium-containing material. The methods may also include removing the hafnium-containing material.

Systems and methods for hafnium-containing film removal

Metal etch in high aspect-ratio features

Exemplary etching methods may include flowing a halogen-containing precursor into a remote plasma region of a semiconductor processing chamber while striking a plasma to produce plasma effluents. The methods may include contacting a substrate housed in a processing region with the plasma effluents. The substrate may define an exposed region of tungsten oxide. The contacting may produce a tungsten oxy-fluoride material. The methods may include flowing an etchant precursor into the processing region. The methods may include contacting the tungsten oxy-fluoride material with the etchant precursor. The methods may include removing the tungsten oxy-fluoride material.

Systems and methods for tungsten-containing film removal

Exemplary methods for conditioning a processing region of a semiconductor processing chamber may include forming conditioning plasma effluents of an oxygen-containing precursor in a semiconductor processing chamber. The methods may include contacting interior surfaces of the semiconductor processing chamber bordering a substrate processing region with the conditioning plasma effluents. The methods may also include treating the interior surfaces of the semiconductor processing chamber.

Chamber conditioning and removal processes

Exemplary etching methods may include flowing a halogen-containing precursor into a substrate processing region of a semiconductor processing chamber. The methods may include contacting a substrate housed in the substrate processing region with the halogen-containing precursor. The substrate may define an exposed region of a transition-metal-containing material. The methods may also include removing the transition-metal-containing material. The flowing and the contacting may be plasma-free operations.

Systems and methods for etching metals and metal derivatives

Exemplary etching methods may include flowing a halogen-containing precursor into a substrate processing region of a semiconductor processing chamber. The halogen-containing precursor may be characterized by a gas density greater than or about 5 g/L. The methods may include contacting a substrate housed in the substrate processing region with the halogen-containing precursor. The substrate may define an exposed region of an aluminum-containing material. The contacting may produce an aluminum halide material. The methods may include flowing an etchant precursor into the substrate processing region. The methods may include contacting the aluminum halide material with the etchant precursor. The methods may include removing the aluminum halide material.

Systems and methods for aluminum-containing film removal

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Zhenjiang Cui