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:
Dec. 26, 2017
Filed:
Aug. 24, 2016
Applicant:
Lam Research Corporation, Fremont, CA (US);
Inventors:
Zhongkui Tan, San Jose, CA (US);
Hua Xiang, Pleasanton, CA (US);
Yiting Zhang, Fremont, CA (US);
Qian Fu, Pleasanton, CA (US);
Qing Xu, Fremont, CA (US);
Assignee:
Lam Research Corporation, Fremont, CA (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H01L 21/3213 (2006.01); H01L 21/311 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
H01L 21/32136 (2013.01); H01L 21/31116 (2013.01); H01L 21/31144 (2013.01);
Abstract
A method for reducing sidewall roughness in an etch layer below a first mask with sidewall roughness in a processing chamber is provided. Sidewalls of the first mask are smoothed, comprising, flowing a processing gas into the processing chamber and forming the processing gas into an in situ plasma in the processing chamber with sufficient energy to sputter and smooth sidewall roughness of the first patterned mask. The etch layer is etched through the first patterned mask.