Dry-etch for silicon-and-carbon-containing films

US8771536B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Applied Materials, Inc. · US

Inventors

• Jingchun Zhang · Milpitas, US
• Anchuan Wang · San Jose, US
• Nitin K. Ingle · San Jose, US
• Yunyu Wang · San Jose, US
• Young S. Lee · San Jose, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Oct 24, 2011
• Grant date: Jul 8, 2014
• Expiry date: Oct 24, 2031

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H01L21/31116
• WIPO field: Semiconductors
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A method of etching exposed silicon-and-carbon-containing material on patterned heterogeneous structures is described and includes a remote plasma etch formed from a fluorine-containing precursor and an oxygen-containing precursor. Plasma effluents from the remote plasma are flowed into a substrate processing region where the plasma effluents react with the exposed regions of silicon-and-carbon-containing material. The plasmas effluents react with the patterned heterogeneous structures to selectively remove silicon-and-carbon-containing material from the exposed silicon-and-carbon-containing material regions while very slowly removing other exposed materials. The silicon-and-carbon-containing material selectivity results partly from the presence of an ion suppression element positioned between the remote plasma and the substrate processing region. The ion suppression element reduces or substantially eliminates the number of ionically-charged species that reach the substrate. The methods may be used to selectively remove silicon-and-carbon-containing material at more than twenty times the rate of silicon oxide.