Thermal atomic layer etching processes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12312696-B2
Application number	US-202318349444-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 10, 2023
Priority date	Dec 9, 2016
Publication date	May 27, 2025
Grant date	May 27, 2025

Abstract

Thermal atomic layer etching processes are disclosed. In some embodiments, the methods comprise at least one etch cycle in which the substrate is alternately and sequentially exposed to a first vapor phase halide reactant and a second vapor halide reactant. In some embodiments, the first reactant may comprise an organic halide compound. During the thermal ALE cycle, the substrate is not contacted with a plasma reactant.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of etching a substrate by chemical atomic layer etching, the method comprising a plurality of etching cycles, each etching cycle comprising:
exposing a substrate having a metal target material to an oxygen source reactant or N 2 O gas in a reaction chamber;
removing excess oxygen source reactant or N 2 O gas from the reaction chamber;
after removing the excess oxygen source reactant or N 2 O gas from the reaction chamber, treating the substrate with a vapor-phase halide reactant in the reaction chamber; and
removing excess vapor-phase halide reactant and vapor-phase reaction by-products from the reaction chamber,
wherein the vapor-phase reaction by-products include atoms of the metal target material thereby etching the metal target material from the substrate, and
wherein the vapor-phase halide reactant is a member selected from the group consisting of: a reactant including sulfur, carbon, and one or more halide atoms; a reactant including sulfur, phosphorus, and one or more halide atoms; a reactant including sulfur, nitrogen and one or more halide atoms; a compound including oxygen, sulfur, and a halide plus hydrogen or a hydrocarbon group; a reactant including sulfur, oxygen, and a halide; a reactant including nitrogen, carbon, sulfur, a halide, and oxygen; a reactant including carbon, sulfur, a halide, hydrogen, and oxygen; a reactant including nitrogen, carbon, sulfur, a halide, hydrogen, and oxygen; and a reactant including halogen, nitrogen, and sulfur.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the metal target material is a member selected from the group consisting of Ti, Ta, Al, Zr, Hf, and W.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the metal target material is a member selected from the group consisting of Ir, Ru, Rh, Mo, Cu, Sb, Al, Ti, Co, Ni, Ta, Al, Zr, Hf, and W.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the metal target material is a member selected from the group consisting of W, Pt, Cu, Ni, Co, Ti, Zn, Nb, Mo, and Ta.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the metal target material is present as a film on the substrate.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the exposing includes exposing the substrate to oxygen or ozone as the oxygen source reactant.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the exposing includes exposing the substrate to N 2 O gas.

Assignees

• Asm Ip Holding Bv

Inventors

• Blomberg Tom E
• Sharma Varun
• Haukka Suvi
• Tuominen Marko
• Zhu chiyu

Classifications

• H10P50/287

  by chemical means · CPC title

• H10P50/285

  of materials not containing Si, e.g. PZT or Al2O3 · CPC title

• H10P50/283

  by chemical means · CPC title

• H10P50/266

  by vapour etching only · CPC title

• H10P50/242 Primary

  of Group IV materials · CPC title