Methods and apparatus for etching metal layers on substrates
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsMelisa J. Buie, Brigitte C. Stoehr
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Method and apparatus for etching a metal layer disposed on a substrate, such as a photomask, are provided. In one aspect, a method is provided for processing a substrate including positioning the substrate in a processing chamber, introducing a processing gas comprising (i) hydrogen chloride, (ii) an oxygen containing gas, (iii) another chlorine containing gas, and optionally, (iv) an inert gas into the processing chamber, wherein the substrate is maintained at a reduced temperature, and the processing gas is excited into a plasma state at a reduced power level to etch exposed portions of the metal layer disposed on the substrate.
Claims26
A method for processing a substrate, comprising:
- positioning the substrate on a support member in a processing chamber having a coil, wherein the substrate has a chromium layer formed on an optical quality silicon based material with a patterned resist material deposited on the chromium layer and is maintained at a temperature of about 150° C. or less;
- introducing a processing gas comprising (i) hydrogen chloride, (ii) an oxygen containing gas, and (iii) another chlorine containing gas into the processing chamber, wherein the hydrogen chloride and the another chlorine containing gas have a molar ratio between about 1:9 and about 9:1;
- delivering power to the coil to generate a plasma;
- applying a bias power to the support member, wherein the bias power is about 5 watts and about 50 watts;
- and
- etching exposed portions of the metal layer.
A method for processing a substrate, comprising:
- positioning the substrate on a support member in a processing chamber having a coil, wherein the substrate has a chromium layer formed on an optical quality silicon based material with a patterned resist material deposited on the chromium layer;
- introducing a processing gas comprising (i) hydrogen chloride, (ii) an oxygen containing gas, and (iii) another chlorine containing gas, and (iv) an inert gas into the processing chamber, wherein the oxygen containing gas comprises between about 5 vol % and about 50 vol % of the processing gas;
- maintaining a chamber pressure between about 2 milliTorr and about 25 milliTorr;
- delivering power to the coil to generate a plasma;
- applying a bias power to the support member, wherein the bias power is about 50 Watts or less;
- and
- etching exposed portions of the chromium layer and selectively removing the chromium layer at a removal rate ratio of chromium layer to resist of about 2:1 or greater.
A method for etching a substrate having a conformal chromium layer formed on an optical quality silicon based material with a patterned resist material deposited on the conformal chromium layer, the method comprising:
- positioning the substrate on a support member in a processing chamber having a coil;
- introducing a processing gas comprising (i) hydrogen chloride, (ii) an oxygen containing gas, (iii) chlorine gas, and (iv) an inert gas, wherein the hydrogen chloride and chlorine gas have a molar ratio of hydrogen chloride to chlorine gas between about 1:5 and 3:2 and the oxygen containing gas comprises between about 5 vol % and about 50 vol % of the processing gas;
- maintaining a chamber pressure between about 10 milliTorr and about 20 milliTorr;
- supplying a source RF power of between about 250 Watts and about 700 Watts to the coil to generate a plasma in the processing chamber and supplying a bias power to the support member of between about 5 and about 40 watts;
- maintaining the substrate at a temperature between about 50° C. and about 150° C;
- and
- etching exposed portions of the conformal metal chromium layer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.