AVS 46th International Symposium
    Electronic Materials and Processing Division Thursday Sessions
       Session EM1-ThA

Paper EM1-ThA6
Integrated Dry Cleaning after Oxide Etching in Fluorocarbon Gases

Thursday, October 28, 1999, 3:40 pm, Room 608

Session: Chemical Mechanical Planarization
Presenter: O. Kwon, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Authors: O. Kwon, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Y.-P. Han, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
H.H. Sawin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Correspondent: Click to Email
A totally integrated dry cleaning process after oxide etching in fluorocarbon gases was proposed and demonstrated on blanket oxide film and patterned 4" wafers. Oxide etching was performed using Inductively Coupled Plasma(ICP) etcher using 100% CHF@sub 3@ gas. In situ oxygen plasma and HF vapor were used for cleaning fluorocarbon polymeric contamination formed during oxide etching. This process sequence was performed in a vacuum cluster system in our laboratory. In this apparatus, we have the ability to transfer samples between processing chambers and perform surface analysis at a base pressure in the 10@super -9@ torr range. In this manner, we can mimic a clustered process, avoid ambient contamination, and obtain an accurate picture of the evolution of the wafer surface throughout the process sequence. We support our cleaning results with quasi in situ angle resolved X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). It was demonstrated that planar surfaces after oxide etching could be cleaned, leaving less than one monolayer of oxygen, fluorine, and carbon on the surface. The proposed cleaning process was also succesful in removing contamination from both sidewalls and trench bottom in line and space patterned samples.