Apparatus and techniques to treat substrates using directional plasma and reactive gas

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10004133-B2
Application number	US-201715644062-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 7, 2017
Priority date	Aug 7, 2015
Publication date	Jun 19, 2018
Grant date	Jun 19, 2018

Abstract

An apparatus to treat a substrate. The apparatus may include a reactive gas source having a reactive gas outlet disposed in a process chamber, the reactive gas outlet to direct a first reactive gas to the substrate; a plasma chamber coupled to the process chamber and including an extraction plate having an extraction aperture extending along a first direction, disposed within the process chamber and movable along a second direction perpendicular to the first direction between a first position facing the reactive gas source and a second position facing the extraction aperture; and a gas flow restrictor disposed between the reactive gas outlet and the extraction aperture, the gas flow restrictor defining a differential pumping channel between at least the plasma chamber and substrate stage.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system to treat a substrate, comprising:
a process chamber housing the substrate;
a plasma chamber, adjacent the process chamber and including an extraction plate having an extraction aperture extending along a first direction;
a reactive gas source having a reactive gas outlet coupled to the plasma chamber;
an inert gas source having an inert gas outlet coupled to the plasma chamber;
a bias power supply connected to at least one of a substrate stage and the plasma chamber, wherein a bias is generated by the bias power supply between the plasma chamber and the substrate stage; and
a controller coupled the reactive gas outlet and to the bias power supply, the controller including a synchronizer to send a closing signal to close the reactive gas outlet and to send a negative bias signal to bias the substrate stage negatively with respect to the plasma chamber when the reactive gas outlet is closed.

2. The system of claim 1 , the synchronizer to send an open signal to the reactive gas outlet and a positive bias signal to bias the substrate positively with respect to the plasma chamber when the reactive gas outlet is open.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising a beam blocker disposed within the plasma chamber and adjacent the extraction aperture, the beam blocker defining a first extraction aperture and second extraction aperture.

4. The system of claim 3 , further comprising:
a deflection electrode disposed adjacent the beam blocker, wherein the beam blocker is disposed between the plasma chamber and the deflection electrode; and
a deflection voltage supply connected to the deflection electrode.

5. The system of claim 1 , the extraction aperture comprising a width, along the first direction, of 100 mm to 400 mm, and a length, along a second direction, of 2 mm to 30 mm.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein an ion beam extracted through the extraction aperture forms a non-zero angle of incidence with respect to a perpendicular to a substrate plane.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the substrate stage is configured to hold the substrate, is disposed within the process chamber and movable along a second direction perpendicular to the first direction.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the ion beam comprises a long axis along the first direction perpendicular to the second direction.

9. A method of etching a substrate, comprising;
forming a plasma in a plasma chamber using an inert gas from an inert gas source;
directing a reactive gas to the substrate through the plasma chamber when the substrate is disposed in a process chamber, adjacent the plasma chamber, wherein a first product layer comprising the reactive gas and material from the substrate is formed on an outer surface of the substrate, wherein the directing the reactive gas to the substrate comprises: sending an OPEN signal to a reactive gas outlet coupled to a reactive gas source, and a positive bias signal to bias the substrate positively with respect to the plasma chamber when the reactive gas outlet is open; and
extracting an ion beam from the plasma chamber through an extraction aperture, the extracting the ion beam comprising: sending a negative bias signal to bias a substrate stage negatively with respect to the plasma chamber when the reactive gas outlet is closed,
wherein the first product layer is etched from the substrate in an exposed portion of the substrate that is impacted by the ion beam, and is not etched from the substrate in an unexposed portion of the substrate, the unexposed portion not being exposed to the ion beam.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the plasma is present in the plasma chamber during the directing the reactive gas.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the reactive gas flows into the plasma chamber through the reactive gas outlet, and through the extraction aperture to the substrate.

12. The method of claim 9 , comprising scanning the substrate stage holding the substrate along a scan direction with respect to the extraction aperture.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein the ion beam forms a non-zero angle of incidence with respect to a perpendicular to a substrate plane.

14. The method of claim 9 , wherein the substrate comprises an array of substrate features, wherein a given substrate feature includes a sidewall and wherein the substrate includes a trench region between adjacent substrate features of the array of substrate features, wherein the first product layer is removed from the sidewall and is not removed from the trench region.

15. The method of claim 12 , wherein the ion beam comprises a long axis along a first direction perpendicular to the scan direction.

16. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
providing a deflection electrode adjacent the extraction aperture; and
applying a deflection voltage to the deflection electrode, wherein an angle of incidence with respect to a perpendicular to a substrate plane is varied from a first angle of incidence to a second angle of incidence.

17. The method of claim 9 , wherein the directing the reactive gas, scanning the substrate stage, and directing the ion beam comprise a first etch cycle, the method further comprising performing at least one additional etch cycle, wherein in a given etch cycle a given thickness of the first product layer is removed from the substrate.

18. A method of etching a substrate, comprising;
directing a reactive gas to the substrate when the substrate is disposed in a process chamber, wherein a first product layer comprising the reactive gas and material from the substrate is formed on an outer surface of the substrate;
extracting an ion beam from a plasma chamber through an extraction aperture, wherein the ion beam impacts an exposed portion of the substrate;
wherein the first product layer is etched from the substrate in the exposed portion, and is not etched from the substrate in an unexposed portion of the substrate, the unexposed portion not being exposed to the ion beam,
wherein the substrate comprises an array of substrate features, the substrate features spaced apart from one another by a distance S, the distance S defined by a trench disposed between adjacent substrate features, and
wherein the distance S increases after the directing the reactive gas and the extracting the ion beam, while the trench remains unetched.

Assignees

• Varian Semiconductor Equipment Ass Inc

Inventors

• Liang Shurong
• Biloiu Costel
• Gilchrist Glen F R
• Singh Vikram
• Campbell Christopher
• Hertel Richard
• Kontos Alexander
• Sferlazzo Piero
• Chen Tsung-Liang

Classifications

• H10P74/203

  Structural properties, e.g. testing or measuring thicknesses, line widths, warpage, bond strengths or physical defects · CPC title

• H10P74/23

  characterised by multiple measurements, corrections, marking or sorting processes · CPC title

• H10P50/691

  for Group V materials or Group III-V materials · CPC title

• H10P50/242 Primary

  of Group IV materials · CPC title

• H01L21/3065

  Electricity · mapped topic