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:
Aug. 21, 2001
Filed:
Jan. 11, 2000
Jie Yu, Singapore, SG;
Guan Ping Wu, Singapore, SG;
Yelehanka Ramachandramurthy Pradeep, Singapore, SG;
Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd., Singapore, SG;
Abstract
A method of etching silicon nitride spacers beside a gate structure comprising: providing a gate electrode over a gate oxide layer on a substrate. A liner oxide layer is provided over the substrate and the gate electrode. A silicon nitride layer is provided over the liner oxide layer. The invention's nitride etch recipe is performed in a plasma etcher to anisotropically etch the silicon nitride layer to create spacers. The nitride etch recipe comprises a main etch step and an over etch step. The main etch step comprises the following conditions: a Cl,flow between 35 and 55 molar %, a He flow between 35 and 55 molar %, a backside He pressure between 4 and 10 torr; and a HBr flow between 7.5 and 12.5 molar %; a pressure between 400 to 900 mTorr; at a power between 300 and 600 Watts. The etch recipe provides a spacer width to nitride layer thickness ratio of about 1:1 and does not pit the Si substrate surface.