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:
Jun. 04, 2002
Filed:
Aug. 24, 2000
Jeffrey Marks, San Jose, CA (US);
Jerry Yuen-Kui Wong, Fremont, CA (US);
David W. Groechel, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Peter R. Keswick, Newark, CA (US);
Chan-Lon Yang, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A plasma process for etching oxide and having a high selectivity to silicon including flowing into a plasma reaction chamber a fluorine-containing etching gas and maintaining a temperature of an exposed silicon surface within said chamber at a temperature of between 200° C. and 300° C. An example of the etching gas includes SiF and a fluorocarbon gas. The plasma may be generated by a capacitive discharge type plasma generator or by an electromagnetically coupled plasma generator, such as an inductively coupled plasma generator. The high selectivity exhibited by the etch process permits use of an electromagnetically coupled plasma generator, which in turn permits the etch process to be performed at low pressures of between 1 and 30 milliTorr, resulting the etching of vertical sidewalls in the oxide layer.