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:
Jul. 19, 2011
Filed:
Aug. 25, 2006
Geethakrishnan Narasimhan, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Mehran Sedigh, San Jose, CA (US);
Geethakrishnan Narasimhan, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Mehran Sedigh, San Jose, CA (US);
Cypress Semiconductor Corporation, San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
A shallow trench isolation (STI) structure and method for forming the same is provided that reduces defects in a nitride film used as a field oxide mask and variations in pad oxide thickness. Generally, the method involves depositing a nitride over pad oxide on a substrate using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), and patterning the PECVD nitride to form a field oxide mask. In certain embodiments, patterning the PECVD nitride involves: (i) forming a patterned resist layer on the PECVD nitride; (ii) etching in a process chamber at least one opening through at least the PECVD nitride; and (iii) stripping the patterned resist layer in-situ in the same process chamber in which the at least one opening was etched through the PECVD nitride using a fluorine based plasma. Other embodiments are also disclosed.