Cyclical plasma etching

• US 10,008,369 B2
• Filed: 08/26/2016
• Issued: 06/26/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oxford Instruments Nanotechnology Tools Limited (Oxford Instruments PLC)
• Original Assignee: Oxford Instruments Nanotechnology Tools Limited (Oxford Instruments PLC)
• Inventors: Goodyear, Andrew L., Cooke, Michael J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vinh, Lan
• Application Number:
  US15/248,853
• Publication Number:
  US 20170069469A1
• Time in Patent Office: 669 Days
• Field of Search: 438706, 438710, 438712, 438719, 438720, 438723, 438736, 216 58, 216 67
• CPC Class Codes: C23C 16/0245 by etching with a plasma
• CPC Class Codes: H01J 2237/334 Etching
• CPC Class Codes: H01J 37/32082 Radio frequency generated discharge H01J37/32357, H01J37/32366, H01J37/32394 and H01J37/32403 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01J 37/32174 Circuits specially adapted for controlling the RF discharge
• CPC Class Codes: H01J 37/32422 Arrangement for selecting ions or species in the plasma
• CPC Class Codes: H01J 37/32449 Gas control, e.g. control of the gas flow
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/30655 comprising alternated and repeated etching and passivation steps, e.g. Bosch process

Abstract

There is provided an apparatus for cyclical plasma etching of a substrate, the apparatus comprising: a process chamber; a support within the process chamber for receiving the substrate to be etched; a controller for repeatedly applying a dosing step and a bombardment steps respectively; a dosing controller for controlling the flow of a process gas in the dosing step such that the substrate is exposed to a maximum dose of process gas in use of 1000 Langmuirs and said dose is controllable within an accuracy of 1 Langmuir; and a first signal generator coupled to the process chamber and a second signal generator coupled to the support within the process chamber, the first and second signal generators being configured such that in use positions ions of an plasma active species within the process chamber have a substrate bombardment energy in the range of 10 eV to 100 eV which is controllable within an accuracy of 5 eV. There is also provided a method for cyclical plasma etching of a substrate using said apparatus.

Claims

1. A method for cyclical plasma etching of a substrate that is received on a support within a process chamber in use, the method comprising a plurality of cycles that are effected by a controller, each cycle comprising the steps of:

dosing a process chamber with a process gas via a dosing controller such that the substrate is exposed to a maximum dose of process gas of 1000 Langmuirs and said dose is controllable within an accuracy of 1 Langmuir; and

operating a first signal generator that is coupled to the process chamber and operating a second signal generator that is coupled to the support within the process chamber so as to cause bombardment of the substrate with positive ions from a plasma active species within the process chamber, wherein the substrate bombardment energy of the positive ions of the plasma active species is in the range of 10 eV to 100 eV which is controllable within an accuracy of 5 eV,

wherein the method further comprises the step of vacuum pumping or purging the process chamber in between the steps of dosing and operating the first and second signal generators.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises providing an inlet pressure to the process chamber of less than 1000 Pa, more preferably less than 100 Pa, using a gas inlet valve close to the process chamber.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises bypassing the flow of process gas around the process chamber.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein the process gas is one or more gases selected from the group consisting of:

bromine, hydrogen bromide, chlorine, hydrogen chloride, fluoroform and other volatile fluorocarbon compounds.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises monitoring optical emission of a gas species present in the process chamber and controlling a length of delay between the dosing step and the bombardment step based on said optical emission.

6. A method according to claim 5, wherein the method further comprises generating an output signal if the monitored optical emission of a gas species present in the process chamber exceeds a predetermined light intensity.

7. A method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises introducing a conditioning plasma in the process chamber before performing the plurality of cycles of dosing and bombardment.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises operating an attenuator that is coupled to the second signal generator so as to allow the second signal generator to operate in use with a first bias power and a second bias power in a sequential manner, the second bias power being attenuated with respect to the first bias power, or vice versa.

9. A method according to claim 8, wherein the first bias power is at least 300 W and the second bias power is below 10 W.