Method and apparatus for etching
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorAlan Cheshire
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Embodiments of the invention relate to a substrate etching method and apparatus. In one embodiment, a method for etching a substrate in a plasma etch reactor is provided that includes a) depositing a polymer on a substrate in an etch reactor, b) etching the substrate using a gas mixture including a fluorine-containing gas and oxygen in the etch reactor, c) etching a silicon-containing layer the substrate using a fluorine-containing gas without mixing oxygen in the etch reactor, and d) repeating a), b) and c) until an endpoint of a feature etched into the silicon-containing layer is reached.
Claims20
A method for etching a substrate in a plasma etch reactor comprising:
- a) depositing a polymer on a substrate in an etch reactor;
- b) etching the substrate using a gas mixture including a fluorine-containing gas and oxygen in the etch reactor, wherein the gas mixture includes less than 20 sccm of oxygen;
- c) etching a silicon-containing layer disposed on the substrate using a fluorine-containing gas without mixing oxygen in the etch reactor;
- and
- d) repeating a), b) and c) until an endpoint of a feature etched into the silicon-containing layer is reached.
A method for etching a substrate in a plasma etch reactor comprising:
- a) depositing a polymer on silicon-containing layer disposed on a substrate in an etch reactor;
- b) isotropically etching the polymer and silicon-containing layer in the etch reactor using a gas mixture including a fluorine-containing gas and oxygen maintained at a first pressure, wherein the gas mixture includes less than 20 sccm of oxygen;
- c) anisotropically etching the silicon-containing layer in the etch reactor using a fluorine-containing gas without mixing oxygen maintained a second pressure that is greater than the first pressure, wherein the fluorine-containing gas comprising the gas mixture is selected from the group consisting of SF6, NF3, CF4, CHF3, ClF3, BrF3, IF3 and derivatives thereof;
- and
- d) repeating a), b) and c) until an endpoint of a feature etched into the silicon-containing layer is reached.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.