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:
Oct. 25, 2016
Filed:
Nov. 17, 2014
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Xikun Wang, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Mandar Pandit, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Zhenjiang Cui, San Jose, CA (US);
Mikhail Korolik, San Jose, CA (US);
Anchuan Wang, San Jose, CA (US);
Nitin K. Ingle, San Jose, CA (US);
Jie Liu, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A method of removing titanium nitride hardmask is described. The hardmask resides above a low-k dielectric layer prior to removal and the low-k dielectric layer retains a relatively low net dielectric constant after the removal process. The low-k dielectric layer may be part of a dual damascene structure having copper at the bottom of the vias. A non-porous carbon layer is deposited prior to the titanium nitride hardmask removal to protect the low-k dielectric layer and the copper. The titanium nitride hardmask is removed with a gas-phase etch using plasma effluents formed in a remote plasma from a chlorine-containing precursor. Plasma effluents within the remote plasma are flowed into a substrate processing region where the plasma effluents react with the titanium nitride.