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AssigneesZeon Corporation, International Business Machines Corporation
InventorsEric A. Joseph, Goh Matsuura, Masahiro Nakamura, Edmund M. Sikorski, Bang N. To
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Pretreatment of an etch chamber for performing a silicon etch process and Bosch process can be effected by running a deposition process employing C5HF7, or by running an alternating deposition and etch process employing C5H2F6 and SF6. It has been discovered that the pretreatment of the etch chamber for the silicon etch process can enhance the etch rate of silicon by at least 50% without adverse effect on etch profile during a first each process following the pretreatment, while the etch rate enhancement factor decreases over time. By periodically performing the pretreatment in the etch chamber, the throughput of the etch chamber can be increased without adversely impacting the etch profile of the processed substrates.
A method of operating an etch process apparatus comprising:
The method of claim 14, wherein said hydrofluorocarbon gas is C5HF7, and said pretreatment process does not employ any gas that etches a semiconductor material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.