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:
Mar. 04, 2003
Filed:
Mar. 27, 2000
Xikun Wang, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Scott Williams, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Shaoher X. Pan, San Jose, CA (US);
Applied Materials Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A process for etching a substrate in an etching chamber and simultaneously removing etch residue deposited on the surfaces of the walls and components of the etching chamber In one version, a two-stage method of opening a nitride mask layer on the substrate includes a first stage of providing a highly chemically reactive process gas in the chamber to etch the nitride layer and/or an underlying oxide layer and a second stage of providing a less chemically reactive process gas in the chamber to etch the nitride layer and/or the oxide layer at a slower rate than the first stage. The first and second stage process gases may each comprise a fluorine containing gas, with the fluorine ratio of the first gas higher than the fluorine ratio of the second gas.