Detailed Description
The term "coupled" as used in this specification (including the claims) may refer to any direct or indirect connection. For example, "a first device coupled to a second device" may be interpreted as "the first device is directly connected to the second device" or "the first device is indirectly connected to the second device through other devices or connections. Furthermore, wherever appropriate, elements/devices/steps having the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings and examples to refer to the same or like parts. Elements/devices/steps having the same reference number or designation in different embodiments may be referenced interchangeably.
Various embodiments are provided below to describe the present disclosure in detail, but the present disclosure is not limited to the provided embodiments and the provided embodiments may be combined as appropriate. In the following embodiments, the same or similar reference numerals denote the same or similar members or signals.
Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of an etching system according to an embodiment of the invention, please refer to fig. 1. The etching system 100 includes an etching device 102 and a control device 104, the etching device 102 being coupled to the control device 104. The etching device 102 is used to etch the material 108 to be processed to form features on the material 108 to be processed. As shown in fig. 2, the processed material 108 may include a photoresist layer 202, a mask layer 204, and a material layer 206, wherein the mask layer 204 is formed on the material layer 206, and the photoresist layer 202 is formed on the mask layer 204. In some embodiments, the photoresist layer 202 may be patterned, for example, by a photolithography process, such that the photoresist layer 202 has a feature pattern, and the feature pattern of the photoresist layer 202 is used as a mask to etch the mask layer 204 and the material layer 206 to form the feature. In some embodiments, the material layer 206 may be an elemental semiconductor substrate (e.g., a silicon substrate or germanium-based) or a compound semiconductor substrate (e.g., a silicon carbide substrate or gallium arsenide substrate). In some embodiments, the mask layer 204 may be formed of a dielectric material, such as silicon oxide (SiO), silicon nitride (SiN), or silicon oxynitride (SiON).
In the present embodiment, the etching device 102 may be, for example, a plasma etching device, but is not limited thereto. Further, the etching apparatus 102 may include an etching chamber R1, an etching gas generator N1, and an endpoint detector 106. The etch chamber R1 may contain a material 108 to be processed, as shown in fig. 1, and the material 108 to be processed may be placed on a susceptor B1 within the etch chamber R1. The etching gas generator N1 may generate an etching gas into the etching chamber R1 to generate plasma to perform the etching process on the material 108. The endpoint detector 106 may detect an endpoint detection signal generated by light intensity at a specific wavelength of light generated when etching the material 108 to be processed. For example, in this embodiment, the endpoint detector 106 may detect the spectrum emitted by the plasma during the plasma etching process, and since the spectrum changes significantly when etching to different material layers, the endpoint detection signal generated by the endpoint detector 106 also changes in signal intensity, which may indicate whether the etching endpoint is reached.
The control device 104 may be, for example, a computer or other electronic device with computing capability, but not limited thereto, the control device 104 may determine the etching completion time of the mask layer 204 according to the endpoint detection signal, that is, the time required for the mask layer 204 to be etched to reach the endpoint (the material layer 206) as shown on the right side of fig. 2. The control device 104 may calculate the thickness of the mask layer 204 according to the etching completion time of the mask layer 204, for example, multiply the etching completion time of the mask layer 204 by the etching speed of the mask layer 204 to calculate the thickness of the mask layer 204, wherein the etching speed of the mask layer 204 may be obtained by collecting data through a conventional experiment, for example. Since the thickness variation of the mask layer 204 will change the aspect ratio of the features formed on the material 108 to be processed in conjunction with the different aspect ratios, the etch time required to etch the same depth in the material layer 206 is different, and thus the thickness variation of the mask layer 204 may correspond to the etch time of different material layers 206. After obtaining the thickness of the mask layer 204, the control device 104 can adjust the etching time of the material layer 206 according to the thickness of the mask layer 204, so as to avoid the situation that the material layer 206 is under-etched or over-etched due to the thickness variation of the mask layer 204 caused by the process or other factors. In addition, since the etching system of the present embodiment can obtain the etching depth information by analyzing the reflected light without adding a light source in the etching chamber as in the prior art, and can directly detect the light emitted by the plasma during the plasma etching process and calculate the thickness of the mask layer 204 according to the etching time, the thickness (etching depth) information of the mask layer 204 can be accurately obtained without increasing the measurement cost or interrupting the etching process to perform the etching depth measurement, thereby achieving the effect of precisely etching the material layer 206.
Further, the control device 104 may calculate a thickness difference according to the thickness of the mask layer 204, for example, subtracting a predetermined thickness (e.g., a standard thickness) of the mask layer 204 from the calculated thickness of the mask layer 204 to obtain a thickness difference (i.e., a thickness variation value of the mask layer 204), and adjust the etching time of the material layer 206 according to the thickness difference, for example, increase or decrease the etching time by a compensation time to ensure that the material layer 206 can be etched to a desired depth. Wherein the relationship between the thickness difference and the compensation time of the etching material layer 206 may be obtained by collecting data, for example, through routine experiments.
In some embodiments, the material 108 may also include multiple masking layers, and is not limited to the embodiment of FIG. 2 including only one masking layer. As shown in fig. 3, the material 108 to be processed may include a photoresist layer 302, three mask layers 304, 306, 308, and a material layer 310. In some embodiments, the material layer 310 may be an elemental semiconductor substrate (e.g., a silicon substrate or germanium-based) or a compound semiconductor substrate (e.g., a silicon carbide substrate or gallium arsenide substrate). In some embodiments, the mask layers 304, 306, 308 may be formed of a dielectric material, such as silicon oxide (SiO), silicon nitride (SiN), silicon oxynitride (SiON). Similarly, endpoint detector 106 may detect the spectrum emitted by the plasma during the plasma etch to generate an endpoint detection signal. For example, the endpoint detector 106 may detect light intensities of different specific wavelengths corresponding to different mask layers, respectively, to generate corresponding endpoint detection signals. The control device 104 can determine the etching completion time of the mask layers 304, 306, and 308 according to the endpoint detection signals corresponding to the mask layers 304, 306, and 308, and calculate the sum of the thicknesses of the mask layers 304, 306, and 308 according to the etching completion time of the mask layers 304, 306, and 308 and the etching speed of the mask layers 304, 306, and 308, respectively. The sum H of the thicknesses of the mask layers 304, 306, and 308 may be, for example, as shown in the following equation:
H=RA×TA+RB×TB+RC×TC (1)
Where RA, RB are the etch rates of the mask layers 304, 306, and 308, respectively, and TA, TB, TC are the etch completion times of the mask layers 304, 306, and 308, respectively. In some embodiments, the relationship between the etching time of the mask layers 304, 306, and 308 and the corresponding etching thickness may be stored in the memory circuit of the control device 104, and after the control device 104 obtains the etching completion time of the mask layers 304, 306, and 308 according to the endpoint detection signal, the control device 104 may obtain the thicknesses of the mask layers 304, 306, and 308 corresponding to the etching completion time of the mask layers 304, 306, and 308 in a table look-up manner. For example, fig. 4A-4C are schematic diagrams of the etching time and the corresponding etching thickness of the mask layers 304, 306, and 308, and as shown in fig. 4A-4C, the curves corresponding to different mask layers have different slopes (etching speeds), and the etching completion times TA, TB, and TC may correspond to the thicknesses HA, HB, and HC of the mask layers 304, 306, and 308, respectively. The control device 104 may add the thicknesses HA, HB, and HC to obtain the sum H of the thicknesses of the mask layers 304, 306, and 308.
Similarly, the control device 104 may subtract the sum H of the thicknesses of the mask layers 304, 306, and 308 from the sum of the preset thicknesses of the mask layers 304, 306, and 308 to obtain a thickness difference HD (i.e., the total thickness variation of the mask layers 304, 306, and 308), and adjust the etching time of the material layer 310 according to the thickness difference. For example, the memory circuit of the control device 104 may store the etching compensation time of the material layer 310 corresponding to the thickness difference, so that the control device 104 may obtain the etching compensation time of the material layer 310 corresponding to the thickness difference in a table look-up manner. For example, fig. 5 is a graph illustrating a relationship between the compensation time and the thickness difference of the etching material layer 310 according to an embodiment of the invention. As shown in fig. 5, each thickness difference may correspond to a compensation time, for example, the thickness difference HD of the embodiment of fig. 4A-4C may correspond to the compensation time TD, and the control device 104 may add the etching time of the material layer 310 to the compensation time TD to ensure that the material layer 310 may be accurately etched to the desired depth. It should be noted that the thickness difference HD may be positive or negative, and the corresponding compensation time TD may be positive or negative, that is, the control device 104 may increase or decrease the etching time of the material layer 310 to achieve precise etching of the material layer 310.
Fig. 6 is a flow chart of an etching method of the etching system according to an embodiment of the invention. As can be seen from the above embodiments, the etching method of the etching system can include the following steps. First, the light intensity of the light generated during the etching process on the material to be processed is detected to generate an endpoint detection signal (step S602), wherein the material to be processed includes a material layer and at least one mask layer formed on the material layer. The etching process may be, for example, a plasma etching process, but not limited to, the etching system may include an etching chamber for containing the material to be processed, and the etching process may be performed on the material to be processed by generating an etching gas into the etching chamber. Next, the etching completion time of the mask layer is determined according to the endpoint detection signal (step S604). Then, the thickness of the mask layer is calculated according to the etching completion time (step S606). Finally, the etching time of the material layer is adjusted according to the thickness of the mask layer (step S608), for example, the thickness difference of the mask layer can be calculated according to the thickness of the mask layer, and the etching time of the material layer is adjusted according to the thickness difference, wherein the thickness difference can be the difference of the thickness of the mask layer minus a preset thickness (for example, the standard thickness of the mask layer).
In the embodiment with multiple mask layers, the etching completion time of each mask layer can be determined according to the endpoint detection signal corresponding to each mask layer, and the thickness of each mask layer can be calculated according to the etching completion time of each mask layer. And then adjusting the etching time of the material layer according to the sum of the thicknesses of the mask layers, for example, subtracting the sum of the preset thicknesses of the mask layers from the sum of the thicknesses of the mask layers to obtain a thickness difference, and adjusting the etching time of the material layer according to the thickness difference.
In summary, the etching completion time of the mask layer is determined according to the endpoint detection signal, the thickness of the mask layer is calculated according to the etching completion time, and the etching time of the material layer is adjusted according to the thickness of the mask layer. Therefore, the thickness of the mask layer can be accurately obtained by calculating the etching completion time of the mask layer, the etching treatment progress of the material layer can be accurately mastered, and the accuracy of the semiconductor process can be effectively improved. In addition, since the etching system of the embodiment can obtain the etching depth information by analyzing the reflected light without adding a light source in the etching chamber as in the prior art, the etching depth measurement can be performed without increasing the measurement cost or interrupting the etching process, and the thickness (etching depth) information of the mask layer can be accurately obtained, thereby achieving the effect of precisely etching the material layer.
Although the invention has been described with reference to the above embodiments, it should be understood that the invention is not limited thereto, but rather may be modified or altered somewhat by persons skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.