TSI process performance in a transformer-coupled plasma dry develop tool

John M. Hutchinson; Yosias Melaku; Wendy Nguyen; Siddhartha Das

doi:10.1117/12.241838

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14 June 1996 TSI process performance in a transformer-coupled plasma dry develop tool

John M. Hutchinson, Yosias Melaku, Wendy Nguyen, Siddhartha Das

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Proceedings Volume 2724, Advances in Resist Technology and Processing XIII; (1996) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.241838
Event: SPIE's 1996 International Symposium on Microlithography, 1996, Santa Clara, CA, United States

Abstract

We investigated dry development of resist in the Lam Research TCP 9400SE plasma etcher to meet process specifications for tea 180 nm lithography generation. A full-wafer imaging interferometer was integrated onto the tool, and used to measure etch rates, uniformities and stability of same in-situ. Etch rates of greater than 5000 A/min and selectivities of greater than 15:1 of silylated to unsilylated resist can be obtained in oxygen plasmas in the TCP in the electrode temperature range studied. However, lateral etching (undercut) underneath patterned oxide islands was measured to be approximately 30 nm/min for a typical oxygen process and could not be eliminated in pure oxygen plasmas. To control the lateral etching, we investigated the use of SO₂ addition to the oxygen discharge. SO₂ addition was found to eliminate the lateral etching component of the resist etch and reduce the etch lag effect, while having a minimal reduction in the overall resist etch rate. We have used the SO₂ process to minimize the effect of over-etch on developed resist profiles.

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John M. Hutchinson, Yosias Melaku, Wendy Nguyen, and Siddhartha Das "TSI process performance in a transformer-coupled plasma dry develop tool", Proc. SPIE 2724, Advances in Resist Technology and Processing XIII, (14 June 1996); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.241838

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