| Patent Number |
Title Of Patent |
Date Issued |
| 6217786 |
Mechanism for bow reduction and critical dimension control in etching silicon dioxide using hydr |
April 17, 2001 |
| A method of etching an oxide layer in a plasma etching reactor is disclosed. The method includes the steps of providing a semiconductor substrate including the oxide layer into the plasma etching reactor and flowing an etching gas that includes a fluorocarbon gas, a nitrogen reactant |
| 6216328 |
Transport chamber and method for making same |
April 17, 2001 |
| Disclosed is a transport chamber and a method of making a transport chamber having a robot arm installed within the transport chamber. The robot arm may be implemented to retrieve a substrate from at least one storage facility that is external to the transport chamber, and insert the |
| 6213136 |
Robot end-effector cleaner and dryer |
April 10, 2001 |
| In a spin dryer for semiconductor wafers, the wafer is held beneath a platen with its active side (i.e., the side containing the components or circuitry) facing upward. One or more nozzles spray rinse water on the top surface of the wafer and the wafer is rotated to remove the excess rin |
| 6209551 |
Methods and compositions for post-etch layer stack treatment in semiconductor fabrication |
April 3, 2001 |
| Methods and compositions for treating a wafer's layer stack following metal etching are provided. The methods involve providing a semiconductor wafer layer stack in a plasma processing system following metal etch, and treating the layer stack with one or more process gases in a plasma |
| 6203657 |
Inductively coupled plasma downstream strip module |
March 20, 2001 |
| A plasma processing module for processing a substrate includes a plasma containment chamber having a feed gas inlet port capable of allowing a feed gas to enter the plasma containment chamber of the plasma processing module during the processing of the substrate. An inductively coupled |
| 6200651 |
Method of chemical vapor deposition in a vacuum plasma processor responsive to a pulsed microwav |
March 13, 2001 |
| A dielectric layer is deposited on a workpiece by a chemical vapor deposition method in an electron cyclotron resonance vacuum plasma processor having a plasma chamber responsive to a repetitively pulsed microwave field and gases from a plasma source. A reaction chamber responds to a |
| 6200415 |
Load controlled rapid assembly clamp ring |
March 13, 2001 |
| Disclosed are inventive apparatuses and methods for interfacing ceramic and metal plasma reaction chamber components. The apparatuses include a clamp ring having a unitary plate having a plurality of attachment pad regions. The attachment pad regions are connected together with connectin |
| 6200201 |
Cleaning/buffer apparatus for use in a wafer processing device |
March 13, 2001 |
| A semiconductor processing system, such as a system for buffing or scrubbing both sides of a wafer at the same time, that includes a processing box for use with chemical solutions, a positioning device to position a semiconductor substrate, or other similar semiconductor material or |
| 6197388 |
Methods of preventing post-etch corrosion of an aluminum neodymium-containing layer |
March 6, 2001 |
| A method for processing a substrate having an aluminum neodymium-containing layer is disclosed. The aluminum neodymium-containing layer has residual chlorine proximate to its etch surface. The method includes providing a first gas chemistry including HBr and SF.sub.6 which supplies a fir |
| 6194322 |
Electrode for plasma processes and method for a manufacture and use thereof |
February 27, 2001 |
| An electrode assembly for a plasma reaction chamber wherein processing of a semiconductor substrate such as a single wafer can be carried out, a method of manufacture of the electrode assembly and a method of processing a semiconductor substrate with the assembly. The electrode assembly |
| 6191043 |
Mechanism for etching a silicon layer in a plasma processing chamber to form deep openings |
February 20, 2001 |
| A method of etching a silicon layer in a plasma etching reactor to form an ultra deep opening is disclosed. The method includes the steps of providing a semiconductor substrate including the silicon layer into the plasma etching reactor and flowing an etching gas that includes an oxygen |
| 6190927 |
Method and apparatus for detecting optimal endpoints in plasma etch processes |
February 20, 2001 |
| An improved method for specifying and reliably detecting endpoints in processes such as plasma etching, where the signal-to-noise ratio has been severely degraded due to factors such as "cloudy window" and low ratio of reactive surface area to non-reactive surface area. The improved meth |
| 6188564 |
Method and apparatus for compensating non-uniform wafer processing in plasma processing chamber |
February 13, 2001 |
| A method and apparatus for compensating non-uniform wafer processing in a plasma processing chamber. The plasma processing chamber has an electrostatic chuck for clamping a wafer. The electrostatic chuck has one or more layers. A first wafer is processed on an electrostatic chuck in a |
| 6187684 |
Methods for cleaning substrate surfaces after etch operations |
February 13, 2001 |
| A method for post plasma etch cleaning a semiconductor wafer is provided. The semiconductor wafer has a plurality of layers formed thereon, and one of the plurality of layers is an oxide layer that has an overlying photoresist mask. The method includes plasma etching a via feature in the |
| 6186865 |
Apparatus and method for performing end point detection on a linear planarization tool |
February 13, 2001 |
| A technique for utilizing a sensor to monitor fluid pressure from a fluid bearing located under a polishing pad to detect a polishing end point. A sensor is located at the leading edge of a fluid bearing of a linear polisher, which is utilized to perform chemical-mechanical polishing on |
| 6184488 |
Low inductance large area coil for an inductively coupled plasma source |
February 6, 2001 |
| A low inductance large area coil (LILAC) is provided as a source for generating a large area plasma. The LILAC comprises at least two windings which, when connected to an RF source via impedance matching circuitry, produce a circulating flow of electrons to cause a magnetic field in the |
| 6184158 |
Inductively coupled plasma CVD |
February 6, 2001 |
| A method of depositing a dielectric film on a substrate in a process chamber of an inductively coupled plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition reactor. Gap filling between electrically conductive lines on a semiconductor substrate and depositing a cap layer are achieved. Films havi |
| 6178919 |
Perforated plasma confinement ring in plasma reactors |
January 30, 2001 |
| The invention relates to a plasma processing reactor apparatus for semiconductor processing a substrate. The apparatus includes a chamber. The apparatus further includes a top electrode configured to be coupled to a first RF power source having a first RF frequency and a bottom electrode |
| 6174450 |
Methods and apparatus for controlling ion energy and plasma density in a plasma processing syste |
January 16, 2001 |
| A plasma processing system includes a plasma reactor, a first power circuit, a second power circuit and a feedback circuit. The first power circuit supplies a first radio frequency (rf) energy to the plasma reactor that is suitable for creating a direct current bias on a workpiece po |
| 6170429 |
Chamber liner for semiconductor process chambers |
January 9, 2001 |
| A chamber liner for use in a semiconductor process chamber and a semiconductor process chamber containing the chamber liner are disclosed. The process chamber includes a housing having an inner surface defining a chamber in which a vacuum is drawn during processing of a semiconductor |
| 6170110 |
Apparatus for HF-HF cleaning |
January 9, 2001 |
| The present invention describes a method and apparatus used in a substrate cleaning system wherein a substrate is placed into a first brush station while a chemical solution is delivered to the first brush station at a desired concentration level. The substrate is then scrubbed in the fi |
| 6168690 |
Methods and apparatus for physical vapor deposition |
January 2, 2001 |
| The invention relates to an improved sputter target that is a combination sputter target and induction antenna. In one embodiment, when the sputter target is energized sputter material particles are sputtered away from the sputter target and a plasma is induced.In another embodiment, the |
| 6165956 |
Methods and apparatus for cleaning semiconductor substrates after polishing of copper film |
December 26, 2000 |
| A cleaning solution, method, and apparatus for cleaning semiconductor substrates after chemical mechanical polishing of copper films is described. The present invention includes a cleaning solution which combines deionized water, an organic compound, and a fluoride compound in an aci |
| 6165910 |
Self-aligned contacts for semiconductor device |
December 26, 2000 |
| In a plasma processing chamber, a method for etching through a selected portion of an oxide layer of a wafer's layer stack to create a self-aligned contact opening is described. The wafer stack includes a substrate, a polysilicon layer disposed above the substrate, a nitride layer di |
| 6164241 |
Multiple coil antenna for inductively-coupled plasma generation systems |
December 26, 2000 |
| A radio frequency plasma multiple-coil antenna allows for controllable, uniform inductive coupling within a plasma reactor. According to exemplary embodiments, multiple coils are positioned on a dielectric window of a plasma chamber, and are powered by a single radio frequency generator |
| 6162301 |
Methods and apparatus for cleaning semiconductor substrates after polishing of copper film |
December 19, 2000 |
| A cleaning solution, method, and apparatus for cleaning semiconductor substrates after chemical mechanical polishing of copper films is described. The present invention includes a cleaning solution which combines deionized water, an organic compound, and a fluoride compound in an aci |
| 6160621 |
Method and apparatus for in-situ monitoring of plasma etch and deposition processes using a puls |
December 12, 2000 |
| An interferometric method and apparatus for in-situ monitoring of a thin film thickness and of etch and deposition rates using a pulsed flash lamp providing a high instantaneous power pulse and having a wide spectral width. The optical path between the flash lamp and a spectrograph used |
| 6155203 |
Apparatus for control of deposit build-up on an inner surface of a plasma processing chamber |
December 5, 2000 |
| A method and apparatus for controlling deposit build-up on an interior surface of a dielectric member of a plasma processing chamber. The deposit build-up is controlled by selective ion bombardment of the inner surface by shifting location of a peak voltage amplitude of a voltage standin |
| 6155199 |
Parallel-antenna transformer-coupled plasma generation system |
December 5, 2000 |
| Radio frequency plasma coupling systems allow for controllable, uniform inductive coupling within a plasma reactor, as well as separately controllable, uniform capacitive coupling within the reactor. According to exemplary embodiments, a set of parallel coupling elements are positioned |
| 6151532 |
Method and apparatus for predicting plasma-process surface profiles |
November 21, 2000 |
| The invention provides a method for predicting a process surface profile that a given plasma process will create on a process substrate. The prediction is based on a test surface profile, the experimental outcome of a test process which is in general different from the plasma process of |
| 6148765 |
Electrode for plasma processes and method for manufacture and use thereof |
November 21, 2000 |
| An electrode assembly for a plasma reaction chamber wherein processing of a semiconductor substrate such as a single wafer can be carried out, a method of manufacture of the electrode assembly and a method of processing a semiconductor substrate with the assembly. The electrode assembly |
| 6146986 |
Lithographic method for creating damascene metallization layers |
November 14, 2000 |
| An improved method of forming a metallization layer in a layer stack is disclosed. In one aspect of the invention, a method of performing a lithographic damascene etch on a layer stack to form a metal line is disclosed. The layer stack, which is disposed above a substrate, is compris |
| 6146248 |
Method and apparatus for in-situ end-point detection and optimization of a chemical-mechanical p |
November 14, 2000 |
| A linear polishing belt for use in chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) of a substrate comprises an opening and a flexible monitoring window secured to the belt to close the opening and to create a monitoring channel in the belt. A plurality of monitoring channels can also be used. A film |
| 6145148 |
Method and apparatus for cleaning of semiconductor substrates using hydrofluoric acid (HF) |
November 14, 2000 |
| A cleaning method and apparatus using very dilute hydrofluoric acid (BF) for cleaning silicon wafers and semiconductor substrates. The HF is delivered to the core of a brush where the solution is absorbed by the brush and then applied by the brush onto the substrate. This delivery sy |
| 6143089 |
Method of cleaning semiconductor wafers and other substrates |
November 7, 2000 |
| A method and apparatus for cleaning a wafer oriented vertically is provided. The apparatus includes a first brush and a second brush located horizontally from the first brush. During use, a wafer is orientated vertically between the first and second brushes. The brushes are brought i |
| 6142163 |
Method and apparatus for pressure control in vacuum processors |
November 7, 2000 |
| A method and apparatus is disclosed for controlling the pressure of a reaction chamber in wafer processing equipment. The disclosed apparatus and method uses a ballast port for inserting gas into the evacuation system, thereby controlling the pressure in the reaction chamber. The dis |
| 6140612 |
Controlling the temperature of a wafer by varying the pressure of gas between the underside of t |
October 31, 2000 |
| A method and apparatus for controlling a temperature of a wafer during processing such as in a gas plasma or nonplasma environment wherein a wafer is positioned on a chuck. The wafer is heated and a pressurized gas is introduced into a space between the wafer and the chuck such that the |
| 6136712 |
Method and apparatus for improving accuracy of plasma etching process |
October 24, 2000 |
| The invention provides a process and apparatus for improving the accuracy of plasma etching processes such as trench and recess etch processes. In such processes, a trench or recess is etched into a layer of material which does not have a stop layer at the desired depth of the etched |
| 6133153 |
Self-aligned contacts for semiconductor device |
October 17, 2000 |
| A plasma, formed from a mixture of C.sub.4 F.sub.8 and CH.sub.2 F.sub.2, is used to etch a self-aligned contact, the self-aligned contact being an opening in the oxide layer, the opening being aligned with an opening in an underlying nitride layer and extending to a substrate underlying |
| 6132513 |
Process chemistry resistant manometer |
October 17, 2000 |
| A manometer resistant to chemical change caused by process chemistry used in a plasma processing chamber is provided. The manometer includes a pressure sensitive diaphragm attached to a housing wherein at least a portion of the pressure sensitive diaphragm is rendered resistant to ch |
| 6132289 |
Apparatus and method for film thickness measurement integrated into a wafer load/unload unit |
October 17, 2000 |
| A technique for integrating a film thickness monitoring sensor within a load and unload unit of a cluster tool for performing chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP). In order to determine CMP performance, a sensor (or sensors) for determining film thickness is/are integrated within the load |
| 6129808 |
Low contamination high density plasma etch chambers and methods for making the same |
October 10, 2000 |
| A high density plasma processing chamber including an electrostatic chuck for holding a wafer, and consumable parts that are highly etch resistant, less susceptible to generating contamination and temperature controllable is disclosed. The consumable parts include a chamber liner having |
| 6125025 |
Electrostatic dechucking method and apparatus for dielectric workpieces in vacuum processors |
September 26, 2000 |
| A glass workpiece processed in a vacuum plasma processing chamber is dechucked from a monopolar electrostatic chuck by gradually reducing the chucking voltage during processing while maintaining the voltage high enough to clamp the workpiece. The chucking voltage during processing is |
| 6123775 |
Reaction chamber component having improved temperature uniformity |
September 26, 2000 |
| A component useful for a plasma reaction chamber includes a heat sink such as a temperature-controlled support member and a heated member such as an electrically powered showerhead electrode. The showerhead electrode is peripherally secured to the support member to enclose a gas distribu |
| 6121154 |
Techniques for etching with a photoresist mask |
September 19, 2000 |
| A method for improving profile control during an etch of a nitride layer disposed above a silicon substrate is disclosed. The nitride layer 106 is disposed below a photoresist mask 108A. The method includes positioning the substrate, including the nitride layer and the photoresist mask, |
| 6119295 |
Brush assembly apparatus |
September 19, 2000 |
| A semiconductor processing system, such as a system for scrubbing both sides of a wafer at the same time, that includes a brush box containment apparatus for use with highly-acidic or other volatile chemical solutions, a roller positioning apparatus and a (brush) placement device. |
| 6117786 |
Method for etching silicon dioxide using fluorocarbon gas chemistry |
September 12, 2000 |
| A semiconductor manufacturing process wherein deep and narrow 0.6 micron and smaller openings are plasma etched in doped and undoped silicon oxide. The etching gas includes fluorocarbon, oxygen and nitrogen reactants which cooperate to etch the silicon oxide while providing enough polyme |
| 6114250 |
Techniques for etching a low capacitance dielectric layer on a substrate |
September 5, 2000 |
| A method for etching through a low capacitance dielectric layer in a plasma processing chamber. The low capacitance dielectric layer is disposed below a hard mask layer on a substrate. The method includes flowing an etch chemistry that includes N.sub.2 and H.sub.2 into the plasma process |
| 6111634 |
Method and apparatus for in-situ monitoring of thickness using a multi-wavelength spectrometer d |
August 29, 2000 |
| A method and apparatus for in-situ monitoring of thickness using a multi-wavelength spectrometer during chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) of a substrate using a polishing tool and a film thickness monitor. The tool has an opening placed in it. The opening contains a monitoring window |
| 6108091 |
Method and apparatus for in-situ monitoring of thickness during chemical-mechanical polishing |
August 22, 2000 |
| An apparatus and method for in-situ monitoring of thickness during chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) of a substrate using a polishing tool and a film thickness monitor. The tool has an opening placed in it. The opening contains a monitoring window secured in it to create a monitoring |
