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:
Jan. 09, 2007
Filed:
Jun. 27, 2001
Francis Ko, Taichung, TW;
Richard Chen, San-Shar, TW;
Charlie Lee, Hsin-Chu, TW;
Lam Research Corporation, Fremont, CA (US);
Abstract
A method for increasing etching selectivity of a developed silicon-containing photoresist layer on a non-silicon containing photoresist layer on a substrate. The developed silicon-containing photoresist layer includes polymer chains containing silicon. Next, the developed silicon-containing photoresist layer and uncovered portions of the non-silicon containing photoresist layer are exposed to an ultraviolet (UV) light, where the UV light emanates from a UV generating agent, such as neon, xenon, helium, hydrogen, or krypton gas in an inert gas (e.g., argon, etc.) plasma. A top portion of the developed silicon-containing photoresist layer is then converted to a hardened layer, where the hardened layer is created by cross-linking the polymer chains containing silicon and the cross-linking is activated by the UV light. Next, an etch is performed on the uncovered portions of the non-silicon containing photoresist layer and the substrate using the hardened layer.