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:
Dec. 03, 2002
Filed:
Oct. 27, 1999
Applied Materials Inc., Snata Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
Copper can be pattern etched at acceptable rates and with selectivity over adjacent materials using an etch process which utilizes a solely physical process which we have termed “enhanced physical bombardment”. Enhanced physical bombardment requires an increase in ion density and/or an increase in ion energy of ionized species which strike the substrate surface. To assist in the removal of excited copper atoms from the surface being etched, the power to the ion generation source and/or the substrate offset bias source may be pulsed. In addition, when the bombarding ions are supplied from a remote source, the supply of these ions may be pulsed. Further, thermal phoresis may be used by maintaining a substrate temperature which is higher than the temperature of a surface in the etch chamber. It is also possible to use a chemically reactive species in combination with the physical ion bombardment without causing copper corrosion problems, so long as the concentration of the chemically reactive ion component is sufficiently low that the etching is carried out in a physical bombardment dominated etch regime.