EP1287546A1 - Installation de gravure au plasma - Google Patents

Installation de gravure au plasma

Info

Publication number
EP1287546A1
EP1287546A1 EP01944922A EP01944922A EP1287546A1 EP 1287546 A1 EP1287546 A1 EP 1287546A1 EP 01944922 A EP01944922 A EP 01944922A EP 01944922 A EP01944922 A EP 01944922A EP 1287546 A1 EP1287546 A1 EP 1287546A1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
plasma
generating device
plasma generating
etching system
gas
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Withdrawn
Application number
EP01944922A
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
Inventor
Franz Laermer
Andrea Schilp
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Robert Bosch GmbH
Original Assignee
Robert Bosch GmbH
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Robert Bosch GmbH filed Critical Robert Bosch GmbH
Publication of EP1287546A1 publication Critical patent/EP1287546A1/fr
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

Links

Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01J—ELECTRIC DISCHARGE TUBES OR DISCHARGE LAMPS
    • H01J37/00—Discharge tubes with provision for introducing objects or material to be exposed to the discharge, e.g. for the purpose of examination or processing thereof
    • H01J37/32—Gas-filled discharge tubes
    • H01J37/32009—Arrangements for generation of plasma specially adapted for examination or treatment of objects, e.g. plasma sources
    • H01J37/32192—Microwave generated discharge
    • H01J37/32211—Means for coupling power to the plasma
    • H01J37/32247—Resonators
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01J—ELECTRIC DISCHARGE TUBES OR DISCHARGE LAMPS
    • H01J37/00—Discharge tubes with provision for introducing objects or material to be exposed to the discharge, e.g. for the purpose of examination or processing thereof
    • H01J37/32—Gas-filled discharge tubes
    • H01J37/32009—Arrangements for generation of plasma specially adapted for examination or treatment of objects, e.g. plasma sources
    • H01J37/32082—Radio frequency generated discharge
    • H01J37/321—Radio frequency generated discharge the radio frequency energy being inductively coupled to the plasma

Definitions

  • the invention relates to a plasma etching system for in particular anisotropic etching of a substrate by the action of a plasma according to the preamble of the main claim.
  • a high-rate silicon etching process is known from patent DE 42 41 045 C1, in which the highest possible fluorine radical concentrations have to be generated in order to achieve the highest possible etching rates. This is done by irradiating correspondingly high high-frequency powers into the inductive plasma source used there with power values of typically 3 to 6 kWatt. With such a high output, however, in addition to the desired increase in the fluorine radical densities, undesirably high densities of ions are also generated, which interfere with the etching process and can be harmful for the highest possible mask selectivity. In addition, such high densities of ions also sometimes lead to undesirably high temperatures of the substrate to be etched and give rise to profile deviations there.
  • the high-frequency powers of 3 to 6 kWatt required there are also problematic and costly.
  • such high high-frequency outputs lead to stability problems within the plasma treatment system, which usually result from poor adaptation of the impedance of the plasma source to the impedance of the plasma generated.
  • damage to the high-frequency components or generators used occurs very easily, since in this case high electrical voltages or currents arise and can have a destructive effect.
  • the plasma deposition system according to the invention has the advantage over the prior art that it breaks up the supplied reactive gases to a high degree and thus the etching and etching processes required for carrying out the process according to DE 42 41 045 Cl or the process according to DE 197 34 278 Cl Passivation species are released very effectively.
  • the plasma etching plant according to the invention can be used to extract sulfur hexafluoride from the etching gas that is preferably used during the etching steps. Orid released a large amount of fluorine radicals, and during the passivation steps from a passivating gas such as CF 8 also a large amount of Teflon-like side wall polymer (CF 2 ) n are generated.
  • the first plasma generating device is an inductively coupled plasma generating device in which an ICP source or ICP coil (“Inductively Coupled Plasma”) is arranged outside the etching chamber.
  • ICP source or ICP coil ICP coil
  • This inductively coupled plasma generating device is particularly advantageous In this way it is achieved that these devices are connected in the sense of a so-called "downstream" arrangement, the supplied reactive gases directly in front of the inductively coupled plasma generation device through a dielectric tube such as for example, flow a quartz tube or a ceramic tube in which a high-density plasma is maintained in a relatively small volume by intensive microwave radiation.
  • the supplied reactive gases are thus already broken up to a high degree by this microwave plasma, and the etching species or passivating species required for the etching steps or the passivation steps are released.
  • the inevitably generated in the microwave plasma also with a relatively high density before the supply of this plasma as a reactive gas in the plasma of the inductively coupled plasma generating device can be made harmless by either the microwave plasma generating device a sufficient distance from the actual one Etching chamber with the inductively coupled plasma generating device, so that the undesirably high ion density in this microwave plasma is reduced again by volume recombinations or wall recombinations, or, preferably, in the area of the entry of the gas supply into the first plasma generating device, ie when the microwave plasma is transferred placed in the etching chamber with the inductively coupled plasma generating device, a discharge device.
  • This discharge device is advantageously a metallic or ceramic mesh, a perforated plate or perforated plate or a so-called “showerhead”, ie a “shower head”, on which ions from the microwave plasma are completely discharged when they pass through or are recombined with electrons. It is further exploited that such a discharge device for neutral fluorine radicals or polymer-forming monomers acts completely neutral.
  • an additional heating device or heating of the unloading device can ensure that no undesired deposition of reactive gases or reaction products from the reactive gases takes place on this unloading device. Such heating can finally also be done passively, since the heat input from the microwave plasma above it already provides sufficient heating.
  • an unloading device in particular in the form of a metallic mesh or perforated plate, further prevents microwave radiation from the microwave plasma generating device from passing into the inductively coupled plasma generating device, so that an otherwise considerable safety outlay for shielding this radiation can be avoided.
  • the unloading device thus very advantageously achieves that only neutral radicals for the etching or sidewall passivation are supplied to the actual etching chamber, while charged particles are at least largely neutralized before entering the etching chamber, and also microwave radiation at the entrance to the etching chamber is prevented.
  • microwave radiation or the use of a microwave generator in the upstream second plasma generating device is particularly cost-effective since, thanks to the advanced technology of microwave heating devices, outputs in the kWatt range can be generated at extremely low prices. So-called magnetron tubes are mostly used for this.
  • microwave excitation there is no risk of destruction of, in particular, electronic components in the event of a mismatch, since reflected microwave powers in the cavity resonator used, known per se, are guided or dissipated to a so-called water load, ie an absorber for microwave radiation, by means of known directional couplers can be.
  • the process carried out according to DE 42 41 045 Cl is usually carried out in inductively coupled plasma etching systems with an oxygen content of 5% to 10% of the flow of sulfur hexafluoride as the etching gas in the etching steps, in order to suppress harmful sulfur deposits in the exhaust gas area of the system.
  • the proportion of oxygen which may only be added during the etching steps, has so far had no further effect on the etching result, since the reactive gas sulfur hexafluoride under ICP
  • Excitation conditions with the release of fluorine radicals is only reduced to stable sulfur tetrafluoride (SF4), and with the relatively low excitation densities in inductively coupled plasma generating devices, only a small fraction is broken down to lower, sulfur-fluorine compounds that are reactive with oxygen.
  • SF4 sulfur tetrafluoride
  • the increase in the fluorine radical concentration in the plasma by saturating such lower sulfur-fluorine compounds with oxygen with further release of fluorine is negligible in previously known plasma etching systems, so that the addition of oxygen has so far had no etching rate-increasing effect.
  • the use of a microwave plasma generating device in which extremely high power densities are generated in a very small volume, means that such reactions of sulfur-fluorine compounds with oxygen radicals also occur to a significant extent and thereby additionally provide fluorine radicals.
  • the addition of Oxygen is no longer neutral with regard to the generated fluorine radical density in the etching chamber, but it causes a significant increase in the available fluorine radical amounts and thus permits higher etching rates for silicon.
  • the first plasma generator which is connected to the second plasma generator and has the actual etching chamber with inductive plasma excitation, therefore primarily has the task of effecting a controlled ionization of the supplied reactive gas from essentially neutral radicals and still unused reactive gases. Relatively low high-frequency outputs of, for example, 600 to 1200 watts are now advantageously sufficient for this.
  • the latter is now also used in a second line for the additional generation of etching species or, to a small extent, of passive species.
  • inductive plasma excitation has the advantage over microwave excitation in the actual etching chamber that particularly uniform etching results are achieved over the entire surface of the substrate to be etched by means of suitable devices, in particular aperture diaphragms, installed in the etching chamber.
  • the invention is explained in more detail with reference to the drawing and in the description below.
  • the figure shows a schematic diagram of a plasma etching system in section.
  • the invention is based initially on an anisotropic etching process for etching silicon with the aid of a plasma as is known for example from DE 42 41 045 Cl. Passivation steps and etching steps are used alternately, with a mixture of sulfur hexafluoride and argon being used as reactive gas during the etching steps, to which oxygen may also be added. During the
  • Passivation steps use a gaseous fluorocarbon or fluorocarbon, for example C4F8 or CHF3, optionally mixed with argon.
  • a gaseous fluorocarbon or fluorocarbon for example C4F8 or CHF3, optionally mixed with argon.
  • the plasma etching system initially starts from a first plasma generating device 31, as is known from patent DE 197 34 278 Cl.
  • This plasma generating device 31 is modified according to the invention in that a second plasma generating device 30 is connected upstream of it.
  • the figure first shows the first plasma generating device 31 known in principle from DE 197 34 278 C1, which is connected to the second plasma generating device 30 in the area of an unloading device 23.
  • the first plasma generating device 31 also has an etching chamber 10, to which a reactive gas or a reactive gas mixture can be supplied by means of a first gas supply 32 in the form of a dielectric tube 22. It is further provided that the first plasma generating device 31 is provided with a second plasma source 11.
  • the second plasma source 11 is an ICP coil with an associated high-frequency generator component, with which a high-frequency alternating electromagnetic field can be generated within the etching chamber 10 which, by acting on the reactive particles provided by the first reactive gas, generates a first gas plasma 21 in the interior of the etching chamber 10 or by coupling the high-frequency magnetic field generated by the ICP coil 11 into the etching chamber 10 charged with reactive gas Ignition of the first gas plasma 21 leads.
  • the application of a high-frequency AC voltage to the substrate electrode 12 thus causes ions contained in the first gas plasma 21 to accelerate toward the substrate 13, which leads to anisotropic etching of, for example, silicon in a known manner.
  • An aperture or an aperture with a cylindrical attachment can also be provided within the etching chamber 10, as is described in detail in DE 197 34 278 C1.
  • the efficiency of the plasma generation in the etching chamber 10 can be increased by the second plasma source 11 by an additional magnetic field. A device suitable for this is described in the application DE 199 33 841.8.
  • the first plasma generating device 31 is further connected to a suction nozzle 14 and a control valve, not shown, so that a defined pressure within the etching chamber 10 can thus be set.
  • the second plasma generating device 30, which is in the form of a Microwave plasma generating device is formed.
  • the second plasma generating device 30 has a microwave generator 20, which is designed in particular in the form of a magnetron or a magnetron tube. This provides a microwave power of 5 to 15 kWatt at a frequency of 2.45 GHz, for example.
  • the microwave power generated by the microwave generator 20 is then further coupled into a cavity resonator 34 which is provided with a tuning device 17 known per se for tuning its resonator length.
  • the tuning device 17 serves to tune the resonance frequency of the cavity resonator 34 to the microwave radiation emitted by the microwave generator 20.
  • the cavity resonator 34 has a known adaptation device 19 for adapting the mode of the coupled microwave radiation to a generated microwave plasma.
  • a circular mode is set in the cavity resonator 34, the mode shape of which can be adapted well to the usually rotationally symmetrical microwave plasma.
  • a directional coupler 35 ensures that, due to, for example, a temporary mismatch in the resonance frequency of the cavity resonator 34 to the incident microwaves in the cavity resonator 34, microwave power that is undesirably reflected can be at least partially dissipated.
  • the cavity resonator 34 preferably has a plurality of such directional couplers 35, known per se, which in turn are based on a so-called
  • Water load are directed, where the microwave power dissipated via the directional coupler (s) 35 from the cavity resonator 34 can be converted into heat in a harmless manner.
  • an alternative can be used other absorbers for microwave radiation can also be used.
  • the second plasma generating device 30 further has at least one second gas supply 16, via which reactive gases or reactive gas mixtures to be fed to the second plasma generating device 30, as are known from DE 42 41 045 C1, are introduced.
  • this second gas supply 16 is designed at least in the immediate vicinity of the cavity resonator 34 in the form of a dielectric tube 22, for example a quartz tube or a ceramic tube, which penetrates the cavity resonator 34.
  • a plasma generation region 33 forms in the cavity resonator 34 within the tube 22, in which a microwave plasma is ignited when a reactive gas is supplied through the second gas supply 16.
  • This microwave plasma has a particularly high power density of, for example, 30 to 100 watts / cm 3 with a typically small volume of only 10 cm 3 to 200 cm 3 .
  • the plasma generation area 33 is located inside the tube 22 in the vicinity of the connection between the first plasma generation device 31 and the second plasma generation device 32.
  • the dielectric tube 22 is designed as a dielectric tube that crosses the cavity resonator 34 and leads into the etching chamber 10, so that the second plasma 18 generated in the plasma generation region 33 from the first plasma generation device 31 via the first gas supply 32 at least can be partially supplied as the first reactive gas to the etching chamber 10. There is then led reactive gas ignited the first gas plasma 21 by the explained inductively coupled plasma excitation.
  • a discharge device 23 is further provided which causes an at least partial discharge of ions and / or electrons from the second plasma 18.
  • This discharge device 23 is designed, for example, in the form of a metallic or ceramic mesh, a perforated plate or a shower head, which means that ions originating from the second gas plasma 18 are neutralized when they pass through the discharge device 23 or are recombined with electrons.
  • the discharge device 23 is permeable, for example, to neutral fluorine radicals or polymer-forming monomers.
  • the unloading device 23 is provided with a heating device, not shown, so that deposition of reactive gases or reactive gas products on the unloading device 23 can be suppressed.
  • the explained plasma etching system 5 is thus designed in the form of a so-called “downstream” arrangement with an upstream microwave plasma generation device and a downstream inductively coupled plasma generation device.
  • the supplied reactive gases flow there immediately before entering the inductively coupled plasma generating device 31 through the cavity resonator 34, where a second gas plasma 18 is ignited or maintained.
  • Breaking up a large part of the reactive gas species in front of the actual etching chamber 10 by means of microwave excitation represents a particularly efficient and cost-effective variant for obtaining a high density of etching species or also passivating species.

Landscapes

  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Plasma & Fusion (AREA)
  • Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
  • Analytical Chemistry (AREA)
  • Drying Of Semiconductors (AREA)

Abstract

L'invention concerne une installation de gravure au plasma (5) destinée notamment à la gravure anisotrope d'un substrat (13) sous l'action d'un plasma (21). Un premier dispositif de production de plasma (31), notamment couplé de façon inductive, présente un premier moyen (11) permettant de générer un premier champ alternatif électromagnétique haute fréquence, une chambre de gravure (10) destinée à produire un premier plasma (21) de particules réactives par l'action du premier champ alternatif électromagnétique haute fréquence sur un gaz réactif avec le substrat à graver (13), et une première conduite d'alimentation en gaz (22). En amont de ce premier dispositif de production de plasma (31) est implanté un deuxième dispositif de production de plasma (32) qui présente un deuxième moyen (20), notamment un générateur de micro-ondes (20), destiné à générer un deuxième champ alternatif électromagnétique haute fréquence, une zone de production de plasma (33) destinée à générer un deuxième plasma (18) de particules réactives par l'action d'un deuxième champ alternatif électromagnétique haute fréquence sur un deuxième gaz réactif, et une deuxième conduite d'alimentation en gaz (16). Le deuxième plasma (18) du premier dispositif de production de plasma (31) ainsi produit peut être alimenté par la première conduite d'alimentation en gaz (2) au moins partiellement comme gaz réactif.
EP01944922A 2000-05-18 2001-05-10 Installation de gravure au plasma Withdrawn EP1287546A1 (fr)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
DE10024699 2000-05-18
DE10024699A DE10024699A1 (de) 2000-05-18 2000-05-18 Plasmaätzanlage
PCT/DE2001/001777 WO2001088950A1 (fr) 2000-05-18 2001-05-10 Installation de gravure au plasma

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP1287546A1 true EP1287546A1 (fr) 2003-03-05

Family

ID=7642734

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP01944922A Withdrawn EP1287546A1 (fr) 2000-05-18 2001-05-10 Installation de gravure au plasma

Country Status (5)

Country Link
US (1) US20020179015A1 (fr)
EP (1) EP1287546A1 (fr)
JP (1) JP2003533877A (fr)
DE (1) DE10024699A1 (fr)
WO (1) WO2001088950A1 (fr)

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DE69942020D1 (de) * 1998-12-11 2010-04-01 Surface Technology Systems Plc Plasmabehandlungsgerät
US6784620B1 (en) * 2003-03-10 2004-08-31 Lockheed Martin Corporation Plasma filter
DE102008027363B4 (de) 2008-06-09 2018-04-26 Meyer Burger (Germany) Ag Vorrichtung zur Behandlung großvolumiger Substrate im Plasma und Verfahren zur Anwendung
DE102009056008A1 (de) 2009-11-26 2011-06-01 Hella Kgaa Hueck & Co. Flügelzellenpumpe
DE102009056010B4 (de) 2009-11-26 2024-02-01 HELLA GmbH & Co. KGaA Flügelzellenpumpe
DE102009055945B4 (de) 2009-11-26 2018-10-04 HELLA GmbH & Co. KGaA Flügelzellenpumpe
US12456607B2 (en) * 2021-12-15 2025-10-28 Applied Materials, Inc. Auxiliary plasma source for robust ignition and restrikes in a plasma chamber
CN118280799A (zh) * 2022-12-29 2024-07-02 中微半导体设备(上海)股份有限公司 一种等离子体刻蚀设备
CN116031158B (zh) * 2023-03-29 2023-06-16 长鑫存储技术有限公司 金属氧化物层的去除方法及半导体结构的制备方法

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Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
DE10024699A1 (de) 2001-11-29
JP2003533877A (ja) 2003-11-11
WO2001088950A1 (fr) 2001-11-22
US20020179015A1 (en) 2002-12-05

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