Pull-back selective etching processes
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsWenting Hou, Rongjun Wang, Chih-Hsun Hsu, Jianxin Lei
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Pull-back selective etching processes for bottom-up selective metal gapfill are described. The processes include depositing a metallic layer on a substrate including a top surface and at least feature having sidewalls and a bottom; depositing a mask layer directly on the metallic layer; exposing the substrate to a first plasma to remove a portion of the mask layer; exposing the substrate to a second plasma to remove a portion of the metallic layer; exposing the substrate to a third plasma to remove any remaining portion of the mask layer; and depositing a conductive material in bottom-up fashion to fill the at least one feature.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- depositing a metallic layer on a substrate including a top surface and at least one feature having sidewalls and a bottom;
- depositing a mask layer directly on the metallic layer;
- exposing the substrate to a first plasma to remove a portion of the mask layer;
- exposing the substrate to a second plasma to remove a portion of the metallic layer;
- and
- exposing the substrate to a third plasma to remove any remaining portion of the mask layer.
A method comprising:
- depositing a metallic layer on a substrate including a top surface and at least one feature having sidewalls and a bottom;
- depositing a mask layer by atomic layer deposition (ALD) directly on the metallic layer;
- exposing the substrate to a first plasma composed of one or more of:
- chlorine (Cl2), a mixture of chlorine (Cl2) and a hydrocarbon, a mixture of chlorine (Cl2) and nitrogen (N2), a mixture of chlorine (Cl2) and one or more inert gases, or a mixture of chlorine (Cl2) and hydrogen (H2) to remove a portion of the mask layer;
- exposing the substrate to a second plasma composed of a mixture of chlorine (Cl2) and oxygen (O2) to remove a portion of the metallic layer;
- exposing the substrate to a third plasma composed of one or more of:
- chlorine (Cl2), a mixture of chlorine (Cl2) and a hydrocarbon, a mixture of chlorine (Cl2) and nitrogen (N2), a mixture of chlorine (Cl2) and one or more inert gases, or a mixture of chlorine (Cl2) and hydrogen (H2) to remove any remaining portion of the mask layer;
- and
- depositing a conductive material in bottom-up fashion to fill the at least one feature.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.