Methods of etching photoresist on substrates
AssigneeLam Research Corporation
InventorsErik Edelberg, Robert Chebi, Alex Panchula
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Abstract
Methods of etching a carbon-rich layer on organic photoresist overlying an inorganic layer can utilize a process gas including a fluorine-containing gas, an oxygen-containing gas, and a hydrocarbon gas, and one or more optional components to generate a plasma effective to etch the carbon-rich layer with low removal of the inorganic layer. The carbon-rich layer can be removed in the same processing chamber, or alternatively can be removed in a different processing chamber, as used to remove the bulk photoresist.
Claims29
A method of etching an organic photoresist on a substrate, comprising:
- positioning a substrate in a plasma processing chamber of a plasma reactor, the substrate including an inorganic layer and an organic photoresist overlying the inorganic layer, the photoresist including a carbon-rich layer overlying bulk photoresist;
- supplying a process gas to the plasma processing chamber, the process gas comprising (i) a fluorine-containing gas, (ii) an oxygen-containing gas, and (iii) a hydrocarbon gas;
- generating a plasma from the process gas;
- and
- selectively plasma etching the carbon-rich layer relative to the inorganic layer.
A plasma etch gas composition, useful for etching an organic photoresist on a substrate, comprising:
- (i) a fluorine-containing gas, (ii) an oxygen-containing gas, and (iii) a hydrocarbon gas, the fluorine-containing gas, the oxygen-containing gas and the hydrocarbon gas being present in amounts by volume such that a carbon-rich layer can be removed from an underlying organic photoresist during plasma etching of the carbon-rich layer with the etch gas.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.