High pressure bevel etch process
AssigneeLam Research Corporation
InventorsTong Fang, Yunsang S. Kim, Andreas Fischer
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of preventing arcing during bevel edge etching a semiconductor substrate with a plasma in a bevel etcher in which the semiconductor substrate is supported on a semiconductor substrate support comprises bevel edge etching the semiconductor substrate with the plasma in the bevel etcher while evacuating the bevel etcher to a pressure of 3 to 100 Torr while maintaining RF voltage seen at the wafer at a low enough value to avoid arcing.
Claims14
A method of bevel edge etching a semiconductor substrate with a plasma in a bevel etcher in which the semiconductor substrate is supported on a semiconductor substrate support, comprising:
- supplying process gas to the bevel etcher and energizing the process gas into a plasma;
- bevel edge etching the semiconductor substrate with the plasma in the bevel etcher while evacuating the bevel etcher to a pressure of 3 to 100 Torr;
- and
- monitoring wafer voltage using a VCI probe and maintaining RF voltage measured by the VCI probe below a threshold of about 220 volts.
A method of bevel edge etching a semiconductor substrate with a plasma in a bevel etcher in which the semiconductor substrate is supported on a semiconductor substrate support, comprising:
- flowing a process gas comprising 5 to 15 sccm NF3, 100 to 300 sccm CO2 and 300 to 700 sccm N2 into the bevel etcher and energizing the process gas into a plasma;
- and bevel edge etching the semiconductor substrate with the plasma in the bevel etcher while evacuating the bevel etcher to a pressure of 3 to 100 Torr.
A method of bevel edge etching a semiconductor substrate with a plasma in a bevel etcher in which the semiconductor substrate is supported on a semiconductor substrate support, comprising:
- flowing 300 to 600 sccm of a He—H2 gas mixture containing 4% H2 and 100 to 300 sccm N2 into the bevel etcher and energizing the gas mixture into a plasma;
- and
- bevel edge etching the semiconductor substrate with the plasma in the bevel etcher while evacuating the bevel etcher to a pressure of 3 to 100 Torr.
A method of bevel edge etching a semiconductor substrate with a plasma in a bevel etcher in which the semiconductor substrate is supported on a semiconductor substrate support, comprising:
- flowing a process gas comprising 5 to 20 sccm NF3 and 100 to 300 sccm CO2 into the bevel etcher at a periphery of the semiconductor substrate and energizing the process gas into a plasma;
- and
- bevel edge etching the semiconductor substrate with the plasma in the bevel etcher while evacuating the bevel etcher to a pressure of 3 to 100 Torr.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.