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:
Jun. 30, 2009
Filed:
Mar. 14, 2007
Kenneth S. Collins, San Jose, CA (US);
Hiroji Hanawa, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Andrew Nguyen, San Jose, CA (US);
Ajit Balakrishna, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
David Palagashvili, Mountain View, CA (US);
James P. Cruse, Soquel, CA (US);
Jennifer Y. Sun, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Valentin N. Todorov, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Shahid Rauf, Pleasanton, CA (US);
Kartik Ramaswamy, San Jose, CA (US);
Gerhard M. Schneider, Mountain View, CA (US);
Imad Yousif, San Jose, CA (US);
Martin Jeffrey Salinas, San Jose, CA (US);
Kenneth S. Collins, San Jose, CA (US);
Hiroji Hanawa, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Andrew Nguyen, San Jose, CA (US);
Ajit Balakrishna, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
David Palagashvili, Mountain View, CA (US);
James P. Cruse, Soquel, CA (US);
Jennifer Y. Sun, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Valentin N. Todorov, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Shahid Rauf, Pleasanton, CA (US);
Kartik Ramaswamy, San Jose, CA (US);
Gerhard M. Schneider, Mountain View, CA (US);
Imad Yousif, San Jose, CA (US);
Martin Jeffrey Salinas, San Jose, CA (US);
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A process is provided for removing polymer from a backside of a workpiece. The process includes supporting the workpiece on the backside in a vacuum chamber while leaving at least a peripheral annular portion of the backside exposed. The process further includes confining gas flow at the edge of the workpiece within a gap at the edge of the workpiece on the order of about 1% of the diameter of the chamber, the gap defining a boundary between an upper process zone containing the wafer front side and a lower process zone containing the wafer backside. The process also includes providing a polymer etch precursor gas underneath the backside edge of the workpiece and applying RF power to a region underlying the backside edge of the workpiece to generate a first plasma of polymer etch species concentrated in an annular ring concentric with and underneath the backside edge of the workpiece.