The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 12, 1999
Filed:
Oct. 23, 1997
Applicant:
Inventors:
Raymond Hung, San Jose, CA (US);
Jian Ding, San Jose, CA (US);
Joseph P Caulfield, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Gerald Z Yin, Cupertino, CA (US);
Assignee:
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H01L / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
216 72 ; 216 67 ; 216 74 ; 216 79 ; 438705 ; 438706 ; 438710 ; 438717 ; 438723 ; 438724 ; 438738 ; 438740 ; 438743 ; 438744 ;
Abstract
An oxide etch process that is highly selective to nitride, thereby being beneficial for a self-aligned contact etch of silicon dioxide to an underlying thin layer of silicon nitride. The process uses difluoromethane (CH.sub.2 F.sub.2) for its strong polymer forming and a greater amount of trifluoromethane (CHF.sub.3) for its strong etching, and with a high diluent fraction of argon (Ar). The etch process is performed at a low pressure of about 20 milliTorr in a high-density plasma etching chamber.