Method for in-situ removal of photoresist and sidewall polymer
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorShu-Hong H. Liou
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Abstract
A method for in-situ removal of unwanted coating layers from a wafer surface by utilizing a magnetic field enhanced plasma is disclosed. The unwanted coating layers may include, but are not limited to, photoresist coating layers and sidewall passivation polymer layers. The magnetic field can be generated at a flux density between about 10 gauss and about 100 gauss. The wafer surface is exposed to the magnetic field enhanced plasma ions for a time period until substantially all the unwanted coating layers are removed, i.e., in a time period between about 1/2 minute and about 10 minutes. An oxygen plasma is used for demonstrating the method.
Claims19
A method for in-situ removal of photoresist and sidewall polymer from a wafer comprising the steps of:
- positioning a pre-processed wafer in a process chamber,
- flowing an etch gas into said chamber,
- igniting a plasma and generating plasma ions isotropically of said etch gas,
- producing a magnetic field having a constant flux density, and
- maintaining said constant flux density for a length of time between about ½ minute and about 10 minutes and removing photoresist and sidewall polymer from said wafer.
A method for removing unwanted coating layers from a wafer comprising the steps of:
- positioning a pre-processed wafer having unwanted coating layers on top in a process chamber,
- flowing an etch gas comprising O2 into said process chamber,
- igniting a plasma in said etch gas and generating plasma ions isotropically of O2,
- generating a magnetic field having a flux density of at least 10 gauss in said chamber, and
- maintaining said flux density for a length of time until all the unwanted coating layers are removed from said wafer.
A method for in-situ removal of unwanted coating layers from a pre-processed semiconductor substrate comprising the steps of:
- positioning a pre-processed semiconductor substrate in a plasma etch chamber,
- flowing an etch gas comprising O2 into said chamber,
- igniting a plasma and generating plasma ions isotropically of O2,
- switching on a magnetic field to produce a flux density of at least 10 gauss, and
- increasing the ion energy of said plasma ions of substantially O2 and maintaining such energy for a length of time until the unwanted coating layers are removed from said pre-processed semiconductor substrate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.