Plasma reactor with heated source of a polymer-hardening precursor material

A plasma etch process comprising:

• providing a chamber within which to carry out said process;
• supporting an article to be processed on a support in the chamber;
• supplying a process gas containing at least etchant and polymer precursor materials;
• providing a polymer-hardening precursor material in said chamber;
• generating a plasma within said chamber;
• heating said precursor material sufficiently to at least maintain a surface of said precursor material reactive.

A plasma reactor comprising:

• a reactor chamber;
• plasma source power coupling apparatus near said chamber and an RF power source for supplying Rf power to said plasma source power coupling apparatus;
• a process gas inlet and a process gas supply coupled to said inlet for furnishing a process gas containing etchant and polymer precursors;
• a support for holding an article to be processed inside said reactor chamber
• a polymer-hardening precursor piece maintained at a temperature sufficiently above that temperature required to scavenge fluorine that silicon oxide etch selectivity is increased by at least a factor of 1.5, said polymer-hardening precursor positioned inside said chamber.

A plasma etch process comprising:

• providing a chamber within which to carry out said process;
• supporting an article to be processed on a support in the chamber;
• supplying a process gas containing at least etchant and polymer precursor-materials;
• generating a plasma within said chamber;
• providing, in addition to said process gas, a source material of silicon or carbon in said chamber;
• applying RF bias power to said source material to at least maintain a surface of said source reactive with said plasma.

A plasma etch process comprising:

• providing a chamber within which to carry out said process;
• supporting an article to be processed on a support in the chamber;
• supplying a process gas containing at least etchant and polymer precursor materials;
• generating a plasma within said chamber;
• providing, in addition to said process gas, a source material of a polymer-hardening precursor in said chamber;
• applying RF bias power to said source material to at least maintain a surface of said source reactive with said plasma.