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US 10,374,144 B2Granted
Dry plasma etch method to pattern MRAM stack
AssigneeLam Research Corporation
InventorsSamantha Tan, Taeseung Kim, Wenbing Yang, Jeffrey Marks, Thorsten Lill
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods of etching metal by depositing a material reactive with a metal to be etched and a halogen to form a volatile species and exposing the substrate to a halogen-containing gas and activation gas to etch the substrate are provided. Deposited materials may include silicon, germanium, titanium, carbon, tin, and combinations thereof. Methods are suitable for fabricating MRAM structures and may involve integrating ALD and ALE processes without breaking vacuum.
Claims16
A method comprising:
- (a) providing a substrate comprising two or more metal layers, a free layer, a dielectric barrier layer, and a fixed layer, wherein the dielectric barrier layer is between the free layer and the fixed layer, and wherein the free layer, the dielectric barrier layer, and the fixed layer are between the two or more metal layers,
- (b) exposing the substrate to a silicon-containing gas and a reducing agent to deposit a silicon-containing material on the substrate,
- (c) exposing the substrate to a halogen-containing gas for a duration sufficient to substantially saturate a surface of the substrate, and
- (d) exposing the substrate to an activation gas to etch the substrate.
1 more element
A method comprising:
- (a) providing a substrate comprising two or more metal layers, a free layer, a dielectric barrier layer, and a fixed layer, wherein the dielectric barrier layer is between the free layer and the fixed layer, and the free layer, the dielectric barrier layer, and the fixed layer are between the two or more metal layers,
- (b) exposing the substrate to a precursor gas and a reducing agent to deposit a material selected from the group consisting of silicon-containing material, titanium-containing material, germanium-containing material, tin-containing material, carbon-containing material, and combinations thereof on the substrate,
- (c) exposing the substrate to a halogen-containing gas for a duration sufficient to substantially saturate a surface of the substrate, and
- (d) exposing the substrate to an activation gas to etch the substrate.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.