Dry plasma etch method to pattern mram stack
AssigneeLam Research Corporation
InventorsSamantha Tan, Taeseung Kim, Wenbing Yang, Jeffrey Marks, Thorsten Lill
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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.
Claims26
A method comprising:
- (a) providing a substrate comprising one 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 one 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.
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A method comprising:
- (a) providing a substrate comprising one 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 one 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.
An apparatus for processing a substrate comprising one or more layers, the apparatus comprising:
- (a) one or more process chambers, each process chamber comprising a chuck;
- (b) one or more gas inlets into the process chambers and associated flow-control hardware;
- and
- (c) a controller having at least one processor and a memory, wherein the at least one processor and the memory are communicatively connected with one another,
- the at least one processor is at least operatively connected with the flow-control hardware, and
- the memory stores computer-executable instructions for controlling the at least one processor to at least control the flow-control hardware by:
- (i) flowing a halogen-containing gas for a duration sufficient to substantially saturate a surface of the substrate;
- (ii) flowing an activation gas and activating a plasma to etch the one or more layers of the substrate;
- and
- (iii) providing to one of the one or more process chambers during (i) and (ii) a reactive material that is reactive with both the halogen-containing gas and a material of the one or more layers on the substrate to form a volatile species, wherein (i)-(iii) are performed without breaking vacuum.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.