Ruthenium Hard Mask Process
AssigneeTokyo Electron Limited
InventorsZhiying Chen, Alok Ranjan, Peter Ventzek
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Abstract
A process is provided in which a hard mask material comprising ruthenium is used. Ruthenium provides a hard mask material that is etch resistant to many of the plasma chemistries typically used for processing substrate patterning layers, including layers such as, for example, nitrides, oxides, anti-reflective coating (ARC) materials, etc. Further, ruthenium may be removed by plasma chemistries that do not remove nitrides, oxides, ARC materials, etc. For example, ruthenium may be easily removed through the use of an oxygen (O2) plasma. Further, ruthenium may be deposited as a thin planar 10 nm order film over oxides and nitrides and may be deposited as a planar layer.
Claims21
A method of etching a substrate, the method comprising:
- providing a target etch layer on the substrate;
- providing a patterned layer overlying the target etch layer;
- providing a hard mask layer comprising ruthenium between the target etch layer and the patterned layer;
- etching a pattern of the patterned layer into the hard mask layer to form a patterned hard mask layer;
- and
- etching the target etch layer while utilizing the patterned hard mask layer as a masking layer for the etching of the target etch layer.
A method of patterning a first layer of a substrate, the method comprising:
- providing a patterned photoresist layer on the substrate;
- providing the first layer on the substrate;
- providing a hard mask layer comprising ruthenium between the patterned photoresist layer and the first layer;
- transferring a pattern of the patterned photoresist layer into the hard mask layer to form a patterned hard mask layer;
- transferring a pattern of the patterned hard mask layer to the first layer after forming the patterned hard mask layer;
- and
- removing the patterned hard mask layer after transferring a pattern of the patterned hard mask layer to the first layer.
A method of etching a substrate, the method comprising:
- providing a target etch layer on the substrate;
- providing a patterned layer overlying the target etch layer;
- providing a ruthenium hard mask layer comprising ruthenium between the target etch layer and the patterned layer;
- etching a pattern of the patterned layer into the ruthenium hard mask layer to form a patterned ruthenium hard mask layer by utilizing a first plasma comprising oxygen;
- etching the target etch layer while utilizing the patterned ruthenium hard mask layer as a masking layer for the etching of the target etch layer;
- and
- after etching the target etch layer, removing the patterned ruthenium hard mask layer utilizing a second plasma comprising oxygen.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.