Method for resist strip in presence of low K dielectric material and apparatus for performing the same
AssigneeLam Research Corporation
InventorsZhisong Huang, Reza Sadjadi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and apparatus is provided for using a plasma generated from a processing gas mixture including H2O to efficiently strip photoresist material without causing significant damage to exposed, underlying low k dielectric material. The method includes disposing the processing gas mixture including the H2O over the wafer. The processing gas mixture including the H2O is then transformed into a plasma. The plasma serves to remove the photoresist material from the substrate without adversely affecting the exposed low k dielectric material.
Claims13
A method for removing photoresist material from a substrate, comprising:
- providing a substrate having a photoresist material overlying a low k dielectric material, the low k dielectric material having an exposed portion;
- maintaining a temperature of the substrate at less than about 20° C.;
- disposing an H2O vapor over the substrate;
- and
- transforming the H2O vapor into a reactive form, wherein the reactive form affects a removal of the photoresist material from the substrate without causing substantial removal of the low k dielectric material at the exposed portion.
A method for operating a photoresist stripping chamber, comprising:
- placing a wafer within an internal volume of the photoresist stripping chamber, the wafer having a photoresist material overlying a low k dielectric material, the low k dielectric material having an exposed portion;
- maintaining a temperature of the wafer at less than about 20° C.;
- supplying H2O vapor to the internal volume of the photoresist stripping chamber;
- applying power to the H2O vapor to transform the H2O vapor into a plasma including plasma ions;
- and
- allowing the plasma ions to activate reactions with the photoresist material, the reactions with the photoresist material acting to remove the photoresist material from the wafer without adversely affecting the low k dielectric material at the exposed portion.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.