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. 16, 2003
Filed:
Apr. 19, 2002
Michael Thomas Tucker, Dallas, TX (US);
Terry Breeden, Cedar Creek, TX (US);
Stefan Ottow, Dresden, DE;
Wolfram Köstler, Langerbrück, DE;
Dan Wissel, Austin, TX (US);
Other;
Abstract
A recycling procedure for 300 mm nitride dummy wafers which have a stabilization layer of silicon dioxide is provided. The recycling procedure is essentially based on selectively wet etching the deposited silicon nitride with respect to the silicon dioxide stabilization layer, preferably with hot phosphoric acid at 160° C. In particular, a method of handling a silicon wafer which is employed as a dummy wafer during a nitride deposition process includes the steps of depositing a silicon dioxide layer on the wafer surface, performing the nitride deposition process on the wafer to deposit silicon nitride or silicon oxinitride on the wafer surface until a predetermined layer thickness is reached, and etching the silicon nitride or silicon oxinitride layer selectively with respect to the silicon dioxide layer.