Claims
- 1. A method for sealing side walls of at least one opening in an organic-containing insulating layer comprising the step of:
creating said opening by plasma etching said organic-containing insulating layer in a reaction chamber containing a gaseous mixture, said gaseous mixture comprising an oxygen-containing gas and an inert gas, said inert gas and said oxygen-containing gas being present in said gaseous mixture at a predetermined ratio, said ratio being chosen such that spontaneous etching is substantially avoided.
- 2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said organic-containing insulating layer is a low K organic polymer layer.
- 3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said plasma etching is performed using a patterned bilayer as a mask, said bilayer comprising a hard mask layer being formed on said organic-containing insulating layer, and a resist layer being formed on said hard mask layer.
- 4. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein said resist layer is selectively removed from said hard mask layer while creating said opening.
- 5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said oxygen-containing gas in said gaseous mixture is O2 and said inert gas in said gaseous mixture is nitrogen.
- 6. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein said ratio of nitrogen in said gaseous mixture to oxygen in said gaseous mixture is in the range from 5:1 to 2:1.
- 7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein prior to plasma etching in said reaction chamber containing said gaseous mixture, a first part of said opening is created by plasma etching said insulating layer in said reaction chamber containing a first gaseous mixture, said first gaseous mixture comprising a fluorine-containing gas and an inert gas;
controlling said plasma etching in said reaction chamber containing said first gaseous mixture, while creating said first part of said opening, such that substantially no etch residues are deposited and that the side walls of said first part of said opening are fluorinated during said plasma etching to thereby enhance the anisotropy of said plasma etching in said reaction chamber containing said first gaseous mixture.
- 8. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein said opening has positively sloped side walls.
Priority Claims (1)
Number |
Date |
Country |
Kind |
98870111.6 |
May 1998 |
EP |
|
RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 60/236,569, filed Sep. 29, 2000, and is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 09/530,069, filed Jul. 3, 2000, which is the national phase under 35 U.S.C. §371 of prior PCT International Application No. PCT/BE98/00159 which has an International filing date of Oct. 22, 1998, which designated the United States of America and which claimed priority to U.S. provisional applications Ser. No. 60/063,487, filed Oct. 22, 1997 and Ser. No. 60/074,524, filed Dec. 2, 1998, the disclosures of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.
Provisional Applications (3)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60236569 |
Sep 2000 |
US |
|
60063487 |
Oct 1997 |
US |
|
60074524 |
Feb 1998 |
US |
Continuation in Parts (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09530069 |
Jul 2000 |
US |
Child |
09967848 |
Sep 2001 |
US |