Chamber recovery after opening barrier over copper
First Claim
1. A process for etching and chamber cleaning, comprising:
- (a) inserting into a plasma etch chamber a production substrate from a cassette having one or more production substrates and the production substrate comprises a dielectric layer overlying a metal layer;
(b) plasma etching the dielectric layer to expose the metal layer;
(c) removing the production substrate from the chamber;
(d) cleaning the chamber with a plasma of a reducing cleaning gas consisting essentially of a mixture of nitrogen gas and hydrogen gas;
(e) then cleaning the chamber with a plasma of a gas consisting essentially of oxygen; and
(f) returning to (a) such that the chamber is cleaned one or more times per cassette.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A chamber dry cleaning process particularly useful after a dielectric plasma etch process which exposes an underlying copper metallization. After the dielectric etch process, the production wafer is removed from the chamber and a cleaning gas is excited into a plasma to clean the chamber walls and recover the dielectric etching characteristic of the chamber. Preferably, the cleaning gas is reducing such as hydrogen gas with the addition of nitrogen gas. Alternatively, the cleaning gas may an oxidizing gas. If the wafer pedestal is vacant during the cleaning, it is not electrically biased. If a dummy wafer is placed on the pedestal during cleaning, the pedestal is biased. The cleaning process is advantageously performed every wafer cycle.
197 Citations
19 Claims
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1. A process for etching and chamber cleaning, comprising:
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(a) inserting into a plasma etch chamber a production substrate from a cassette having one or more production substrates and the production substrate comprises a dielectric layer overlying a metal layer; (b) plasma etching the dielectric layer to expose the metal layer; (c) removing the production substrate from the chamber; (d) cleaning the chamber with a plasma of a reducing cleaning gas consisting essentially of a mixture of nitrogen gas and hydrogen gas; (e) then cleaning the chamber with a plasma of a gas consisting essentially of oxygen; and (f) returning to (a) such that the chamber is cleaned one or more times per cassette. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A process for plasma etching and chamber cleaning, comprising:
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inserting into a plasma etching chamber a production substrate comprising a dielectric layer over a copper layer into a plasma etch chamber; etching the dielectric layer to expose the copper layer; removing the production substrate from the chamber; and with no production substrate being present in the chamber, cleaning the chamber with a plasma of a reducing cleaning gas consisting essentially of hydrogen gas and nitrogen gas, and then cleaning the chamber with a plasma of a gas consisting essentially of oxygen. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A process for etching and chamber cleaning, comprising the steps of:
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(a) inserting into a plasma etch chamber a production substrate from a cassette having one or more production substrates and the production substrate comprises a dielectric layer overlying a metal layer; (b) plasma etching the dielectric layer to expose the metal layer; (c) while the production wafer is in the chamber, cleaning the chamber with a plasma of a reducing gas consisting essentially of hydrogen gas and nitrogen gas, and then cleaning the chamber with a plasma of a gas consisting essentially of oxygen; and (d) returning to (a) such that the chamber is cleaned for every production wafer. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19)
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Specification