IUVSTA 15th International Vacuum Congress (IVC-15), AVS 48th International Symposium (AVS-48), 11th International Conference on Solid Surfaces (ICSS-11)
    Plasma Science Thursday Sessions
       Session PS+MS-ThM

Paper PS+MS-ThM1
An Advanced 300 mm Etcher with Tunable Plasma Source for the Etching of <0.15mm Poly-Silicon Gates

Thursday, November 1, 2001, 8:20 am, Room 104

Session: Conductor Etch and Damage
Presenter: J. Holland, Applied Materials, Inc.
Authors: J. Holland, Applied Materials, Inc.
M. Jain, Applied Materials, Inc.
M. Shen, Applied Materials, Inc.
N. Gani, Applied Materials, Inc.
A.M. Paterson, Applied Materials, Inc.
V. Todorov, Applied Materials, Inc.
M.S. Barnes, Applied Materials, Inc.
K. Fairbairn, Applied Materials, Inc.
Correspondent: Click to Email
The current requirements for etch performance for 300mm poly-silicon gate can only be met by providing a wide enough process window that is capable of achieving uniform etching for the variety of steps needed to complete this etch. The final dimensions of the polysilicon gate are functions of the many different etch steps, the ARC/DARC open, the main-etch , soft landing step and over-etch steps. In order to achieve < 10 nm CD range for <0.15 um polysilicon features, all of these steps need to be very uniform and the CD loss (or gain) needs to be very controllable. In this next generation 300 mm etcher, a tunable inductively coupled plasma source combined with advanced gas injection technology allows etch uniformity to be optimized for all of these different steps. Results of tuning for etch uniformity will be shown. CD control of <5 nm with a total range of 10 nm is achieved. The tunable source is also combined with a precise wafer temperature control using a dual-zone electrostatic chuck to ensure CD uniformity can be achieved across the entire diameter of the 300mm wafer. The wide process window of this etcher should be capable of addressing both current and evolving applications which require etching of multiple films with multiple etch steps involving varied process conditions.