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US 5,849,639 AGranted
Method for removing etching residues and contaminants
AssigneeLucent Technologies Inc.
InventorsSimon John Molloy, Daniel Joseph Vitkavage
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AssigneeLucent Technologies Inc.
InventorsSimon John Molloy, Daniel Joseph Vitkavage
Estimating the term…
A gas plasma process for removing photoresist and etch residues and other contaminants involved in etching vias in integrated circuit devices is disclosed. The process involves placing the substrate having etched vias or contact holes in a suitable low bias reactor; applying to the substrate surface a mixture of gases at low bias selected from the group consisting of oxygen, nitrogen, fluorine, hydrofluorocarbon and fluorinated methane and amine gases to both remove the photoresist layer and alter the composition of the residues such that the residues are soluble in water; and rinsing the substrate with deionized water. The plasma process should be carried out at temperatures of less than about 100 degrees C to avoid mobile ion contamination problems and oxidation of the etch residues.
A photoresist strip and etch residue removal process comprising the steps of:
An improved method for removing photoresist and etch residues in a process of fabricating post vias and contact holes in a substrate for use in coupling interconnect layers of integrated circuit devices, the process being of the type where a photoresist layer is applied to selected portions of the substrate surface, leaving exposed portions, and a reactive etchant is applied to form vias or contact holes at the exposed portions of the substrate surface, the improvement comprising the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.