Aluminum oxide selective etch
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsXikun Wang, Anchuan Wang, Nitin K. Ingle
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Abstract
Methods of selectively etching aluminum oxide from the surface of a patterned substrate are described. The etch selectively removes aluminum oxide relative to other metal oxides and silicon-containing films such as silicon, polysilicon, silicon oxide, silicon germanium and/or silicon nitride. The methods include exposing aluminum oxide to plasma effluents formed in a remote plasma from a chlorine-containing precursor and a hydrocarbon. A remote plasma is used to excite the precursors and a local plasma is used to further excite the plasma effluents and accelerate ions toward the patterned substrate.
Claims15
A method of etching aluminum oxide, the method comprising:
- placing a patterned substrate in a substrate processing region of a substrate processing chamber, wherein the patterned substrate comprises an exposed aluminum oxide portion;
- flowing a chlorine-containing precursor into a remote plasma region fluidly coupled to the substrate processing region;
- flowing a hydrogen-and-carbon-containing precursor into the remote plasma region;
- forming a remote plasma in the remote plasma region from the chlorine-containing precursor and the hydrogen-and-carbon-containing precursor to produce plasma effluents;
- flowing the plasma effluents into the substrate processing region through through-holes in a showerhead, wherein the showerhead is disposed between the remote plasma region and the substrate processing chamber;
- forming a bias plasma in the substrate processing region to further excite the plasma effluents;
- and
- etching the exposed aluminum oxide portion from the patterned substrate, wherein a temperature of the patterned substrate is below 130° C. during the operation of etching the exposed aluminum oxide portion.
A method of etching aluminum oxide, the method comprising:
- placing a patterned substrate in a substrate processing region of a substrate processing chamber, wherein the patterned substrate comprises an exposed aluminum oxide portion;
- flowing radical-chlorine into the substrate processing region;
- flowing radical-hydrogen-carbon into the substrate processing region;
- forming a bias plasma in the substrate processing region to excite the radical-chlorine and the radical-hydrogen-carbon;
- and
- etching the exposed aluminum oxide portion from the patterned substrate, wherein a temperature of the patterned substrate is below 130° C. during the operation of etching the exposed aluminum oxide portion.
A method of etching aluminum oxide, the method comprising:
- placing a patterned substrate in a substrate processing region of a substrate processing chamber, wherein the patterned substrate comprises an exposed aluminum oxide portion and a second exposed portion of silicon nitride, silicon or hafnium oxide;
- combining molecular chlorine with methane in a remote plasma region fluidly coupled to the substrate processing region;
- forming a remote plasma in the remote plasma region from the molecular chlorine and the methane to produce plasma effluents which flow into the substrate processing region through through-holes in a showerhead, wherein the showerhead is disposed between the remote plasma region and the substrate processing chamber;
- forming a bias plasma in the substrate processing region to further excite the plasma effluents, wherein a pressure in the substrate processing region is between 0.01 Torr and 1.0 Torr during the operation of forming the bias plasma;
- and
- etching the exposed aluminum oxide portion from the patterned substrate, wherein a temperature of the patterned substrate is below 130° C. during the operation of etching the aluminum oxide, and wherein the exposed aluminum oxide portion etches at greater than twenty times an etch rate of the second exposed portion.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.