Pressure purge etch method for etching complex 3-D structures
AssigneeLam Research Corporation
InventorsPilyeon Park, Joydeep Guha
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for etching a substrate and removing byproducts includes a) setting process parameters of a processing chamber for a selective dry etch process; b) setting process pressure of the processing chamber to a first predetermined pressure in a range from 1 Torr to 10 Torr for the selective dry etch process; c) selectively etching a first film material of a substrate relative to a second film material of the substrate in the processing chamber during a first period; d) lowering pressure in the processing chamber to a second predetermined pressure that is less than the first predetermined pressure by a factor greater than or equal to 4; and e) purging the processing chamber at the second predetermined pressure for a second period.
Claims19
A method for etching a substrate and removing byproducts, the substrate comprising a stack including a plurality of first layers and a plurality of second layers, the first layers alternating with the second layers, the method comprising:
- a) setting process parameters of a processing chamber for a selective dry etch process;
- b) setting process pressure of the processing chamber to a first predetermined pressure in a range from 1 Torr to 10 Torr for the selective dry etch process;
- c) selectively etching a portion of one of the first layers relative to one of the second layers in the processing chamber during a first period;
- d) lowering pressure in the processing chamber to a second predetermined pressure that is less than the first predetermined pressure by a factor greater than or equal to 4 in order to purge the processing chamber at the second predetermined pressure for a second period;
- e) purging the processing chamber at the second predetermined pressure for the second period;
- and
- repeating a) through e) or b) through e) N times, where N is an integer greater than one.
A method for etching a substrate and removing byproducts, the substrate comprising a stack including a plurality of first layers and a plurality of second layers, the first layers alternating with the second layers, comprising:
- a) setting process parameters of a processing chamber for an etch process;
- b) setting process pressure of the processing chamber to a first predetermined pressure in a range from 1 Torr to 3 Torr for the etch process;
- c) selectively etching a portion of one of the first layers relative to one of the second layers in the processing chamber during a first period;
- d) lowering pressure in the processing chamber to a second predetermined pressure that is less than the first predetermined pressure by a factor greater than or equal to 4 in order to purge the processing chamber at the second predetermined pressure for a second period;
- e) purging the processing chamber at the second predetermined pressure for the second period;
- and
- f) repeating b) through e) N times, where N is an integer greater than one.
A method for etching a substrate and removing byproducts, the substrate comprising a stack including a plurality of first layers and a plurality of second layers, the first layers alternating with the second layers, the method comprising:
- a) setting process parameters of a processing chamber for a selective dry etch process;
- b) setting process pressure of the processing chamber to a first predetermined pressure for the selective dry etch process;
- c) selectively etching a portion of one of the first layers relative to one of the second layers in the processing chamber during a first period;
- d) lowering pressure in the processing chamber to a second predetermined pressure that is less than the first predetermined pressure in order to purge the processing chamber at the second predetermined pressure for a second period;
- e) purging the processing chamber at the second predetermined pressure for the second period;
- and
- f) repeating a) through e) or b) through e) N times, where N is an integer greater than one.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.