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. 05, 2010
Filed:
Sep. 26, 2005
Wendy H. Yeh, Mountain View, CA (US);
Wendy H. Yeh, Mountain View, CA (US);
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A process for selectively removing photoresist, organic overlayers, and/or polymers/residues from a substrate without altering the surface chemistry and adhesion properties of the underlying substrate layers is provided. Generally, the process includes pretreating the substrate with hydrogen (e.g., by way of a hydrogen-based plasma) prior to deposition of a photoresist layer, and then ashing the substrate with a hydrogen-based plasma to selectively remove the photoresist, organic overlayers, and/or polymers/residues from the substrate during etching, post-etch, rework, etc. The hydrogen-based ashing process of the invention may be used post-etch to remove the residue photoresist, or may be used in a rework stripping process to remove misaligned patterns. The hydrogen-based ashing process following the initial hydrogen surface pretreatment substantially reduces surface chemistry poisoning, while retaining adequate adhesion properties following ashing.