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. 30, 2003
Filed:
Mar. 30, 2001
Si Yi Li, Fremont, CA (US);
Helen H. Zhu, Fremont, CA (US);
S. M. Reza Sadjadi, Saratoga, CA (US);
David R. Pirkle, Soquel, CA (US);
James Bowers, Brookfield, CT (US);
Michael Goss, Mendon, MA (US);
Lam Research Corporation, Fremont, CA (US);
Abstract
The invention provides a process for plasma etching silicon carbide with selectivity to an overlapping and/or underlying dielectric layer of material. The etching gas includes a hydrogen-containing fluorocarbon gas such as CH F, an oxygen-containing gas such as O and an optional carrier gas such as Ar. The dielectric material can comprise silicon dioxide, silicon nitride, silicon oxynitride or various low-k dielectric materials including organic low-k materials. In order to achieve a desired selectivity to such dielectric materials, the plasma etch gas chemistry is selected to achieve a desired etch rate of the silicon carbide while etching the dielectric material at a slower rate. The process can be used to selectively etch a hydrogenated silicon carbide etch stop layer or silicon carbide substrates.