Plasma surface treatment method and resulting device

A method of treating an object, the method comprising:

• positioning the object to be treated including etching in a treatment room;
• generating a plasma in a plasma discharge room from a gas A the gas A comprising a nitrogen bearing compound, and a gas-B, the gas B comprising NH3;
• passing the plasma from the plasma discharge room to the treatment room;
• injecting a gas D into the plasma at a location between the plasma discharge room and the treatment room through a nozzle so as to form a mixture of said plasma and said gas D;
• and
• introducing the mixture into the treatment room so as to etch the object in the treatment room with a mixture species generated from the plasma and said gas D, whereupon the object is substantially free from physical surface damage;
• wherein the NH3 is provided at a concentration below an explosion limit defined at 1 atmosphere pressure.

A method of treating an object, the method comprising:

• positioning the object to be treated using an etching process in a process chamber, the object including an overlying thin layer of silicon dioxide overlying a surface on the object;
• generating a plasma from a gas mixture comprising a first gas, the first gas being selected from the group consisting of a nitrogen bearing compound and at least an element in group 18 of the atomic periodic table, and a second gas, the second gas comprising an NH3 bearing compound;
• passing the plasma along a conduit after the plasma has been generated;
• injecting a third gas into the conduit to form a mixture species from the plasma and the third gas;
• passing the mixture species from the conduit into the process chamber away from where the plasma has been generated;
• applying atomic hydrogen in the mixture species to the surface of the object to process the surface of the object;
• removing the thin surface of silicon dioxide from the surface of the object with the mixture species including the atomic hydrogen, whereupon the surface of the object is substantially free from physical surface damage;
• wherein the NH3 is provided at a concentration below an explosion limit defined at 1 atmosphere pressure.