Vertical profile fixing
AssigneeLam Research Corporation
InventorsS. M. Reza Sadjadi, Peter Cirigliano, Jisoo Kim, Zhisong Huang, Eric A. Hudson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for etching features in an etch layer is provided. A patterned photoresist mask is formed over the etch layer with photoresist features with sidewalls wherein the sidewalls of the photoresist features have irregular profiles along depths of the photoresist features. The irregular profiles along the depths of the photoresist features of the sidewalls of the photoresist features are corrected comprising at least one cycle, where each cycle comprises a sidewall deposition phase and a profile shaping phase. Feature is etched into the etch layer through the photoresist features. The mask is removed.
Claims20
A method for etching features in an etch layer, comprising:
- forming a patterned photoresist mask over the etch layer with photoresist features with sidewalls wherein the sidewalls of the photoresist features have irregular profiles along depths of the photoresist features;
- correcting the irregular profiles along the depths of the photoresist features of the sidewalls of the photoresist features comprising at least one cycle, wherein each cycle comprises:
- a sidewall deposition phase;
- and
- a profile shaping phase, wherein the profile shaping phase is performed after the sidewall deposition phase;
- etching features into the etch layer through the photoresist features, after the correcting the irregular profiles is completed;
- and
- removing the mask.
A method for etching features with vertical profile sidewalls in an etch layer, comprising:
- forming a patterned photoresist mask over the etch layer with photoresist features with sidewalls wherein the sidewalls of the photoresist features have non-vertical profile sidewalls;
- correcting the non-vertical profile sidewalls to form photoresist features with vertical profile sidewalls comprising a plurality of cycles, wherein each cycle comprises:
- a sidewall deposition phase;
- and
- a profile shaping phase, after the sidewall deposition phase is completed;
- etching features with vertical profile sidewalls into the etch layer through the photoresist features, after the correcting the non-vertical profiles is completed;
- and
- removing the mask.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.