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US 12,312,696 B2Granted
Thermal atomic layer etching processes
AssigneeASM IP Holding B.V.
InventorsTom E. Blomberg, Varun Sharma, Suvi Haukka, Marko Tuominen, Chiyu Zhu
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Thermal atomic layer etching processes are disclosed. In some embodiments, the methods comprise at least one etch cycle in which the substrate is alternately and sequentially exposed to a first vapor phase halide reactant and a second vapor halide reactant. In some embodiments, the first reactant may comprise an organic halide compound. During the thermal ALE cycle, the substrate is not contacted with a plasma reactant.
Claims7
A method of etching a substrate by chemical atomic layer etching, the method comprising a plurality of etching cycles, each etching cycle comprising:
- exposing a substrate having a metal target material to an oxygen source reactant or N2O gas in a reaction chamber;
- removing excess oxygen source reactant or N2O gas from the reaction chamber;
- after removing the excess oxygen source reactant or N2O gas from the reaction chamber, treating the substrate with a vapor-phase halide reactant in the reaction chamber;
- and
- removing excess vapor-phase halide reactant and vapor-phase reaction by-products from the reaction chamber,
- wherein the vapor-phase reaction by-products include atoms of the metal target material thereby etching the metal target material from the substrate, and
- wherein the vapor-phase halide reactant is a member selected from the group consisting of:
- a reactant including sulfur, carbon, and one or more halide atoms;
- a reactant including sulfur, phosphorus, and one or more halide atoms;
- a reactant including sulfur, nitrogen and one or more halide atoms;
- a compound including oxygen, sulfur, and a halide plus hydrogen or a hydrocarbon group;
- a reactant including sulfur, oxygen, and a halide;
- a reactant including nitrogen, carbon, sulfur, a halide, and oxygen;
- a reactant including carbon, sulfur, a halide, hydrogen, and oxygen;
- a reactant including nitrogen, carbon, sulfur, a halide, hydrogen, and oxygen;
- and a reactant including halogen, nitrogen, and sulfur.
13 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.