Method and apparatus for dielectric etching during integrated circuit fabrication
AssigneeMacronix International Co., Ltd.
InventorsHong-Ji Lee, Chun-Hung Lee, Nan-Tsu Lian
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Abstract
A method for multi-step dielectric etching includes discharge steps between each of the etching steps in order to help release accumulated charge on the wafer produced by the previous etching step. The discharge steps stabilize the plasma discharge in each transition between etching steps. Charge elimination occurs because the negative species is relatively higher at the beginning of plasma spiking and can reach the wafer surface to reduce the accumulated charge.
Claims20
A method for etching a multi-layered dielectric structure using a plasma reactor, comprising:
- flowing a first gas mixture into the plasma reactor and exciting the first gas mixture into a plasma capable of etching a first layer of the multi-layered dielectric structure;
- etching the first layer using the plasma formed using the first gas mixture;
- releasing an accumulated charge that results from the etching step performed on the first layer;
- flowing a second gas mixture into the plasma reactor and exciting the second gas mixture into a plasma capable of etching a second layer of the multi-layered dielectric structure;
- and
- etching the second layer using the plasma formed using the second gas mixture.
A method for etching a multi-layered dielectric structure using a plasma reactor comprising, for each layer of the multi-layered dielectric structure:
- flowing a gas mixture into the plasma reactor and exciting the gas mixture into a plasma capable of etching the layer;
- etching the layer using the plasma formed using the gas mixture;
- and
- releasing an accumulated charge that results from the etching step performed on the layer using an inert gas for a certain release time and at a certain power.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.