Claims
- 1. A method of etching a substrate, comprising steps of:
providing a substrate having oxide over silicon nitride; providing a fluorinated plasma comprising an additive fluorocarbon having at least as many hydrogen atoms as fluorine; and exposing said substrate to said fluorinated plasma to etch through at least a portion of said oxide to expose a region of said silicon nitride.
- 2. A method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of providing said substrate a temperature of at least 30° C.
- 3. A method according to claim 1, wherein said additive fluorocarbon comprises at least one of CH2F2 and CH3F.
- 4. A method according to claim 3, wherein said fluorinated plasma further comprises at least one of CHF3 and CF4.
- 5. A method according to claim 4, wherein said fluorinated plasma further comprises argon.
- 6. A method of etching a layered semiconductor substrate, comprising steps of:
providing nitride over at least a portion of a semiconductor substrate; forming second different material over at least a portion of said nitride; and etching through at least a portion of said second material to expose at least a portion of said nitride; said etching using a plasma comprising an additive fluorocarbon compound having at least as many hydrogen atoms as fluorine.
- 7. A method according to claim 6, wherein said additive fluorocarbon compound comprises at least one of CH2F2 and CH3F.
- 8. A method according to claim 7, wherein said plasma further comprises at least one of CF4 and CHF3.
- 9. A method according to claim 8, wherein said plasma further comprises argon.
- 10. A method according to claim 7, wherein said additive fluorocarbon compound is provided a gas flow of at least 3% of the total flow for said plasma.
- 11. A method according to claim 10, wherein said additive fluorocarbon compound is provided a gas flow of 3-20% of the total flow for said plasma.
- 12. A method according to claim 11, wherein the total flow for said plasma comprises 70-90% of at least one of CHF3, CF4 and AR.
- 13. A method according to claim 12, wherein said total flow comprises at least 3% CHF3.
- 14. A method according to claim 13, wherein said total flow comprises at least 10% CF4.
- 15. A method according to claim 14, wherein said total flow comprises at least 33% argon.
- 16. A method according to claim 6, wherein said second material comprises oxide.
- 17. A method according to claim 16, wherein said oxide comprises at least one of undoped silicon oxide and doped silicon oxide.
- 18. A method according to claim 6, further comprising a step of maintaining said substrate at a temperature above 30° C.
- 19. A method of plasma processing a layered structure, said method comprising the steps of:
providing a layered structure comprising silicon nitride and silicon oxide over at least a portion thereof; generating a plasma from gases comprising first fluorocarbons having at least as many hydrogen atoms as fluorine; and employing said plasma to etch through at least a portion of said silicon oxide and expose a portion of said silicon nitride.
- 20. A method according to claim 19, wherein said first fluorocarbons comprise at least one of CH2F2 and CH3F.
- 21. A method according to claim 20, wherein said gases further comprise second fluorocarbons comprising at least one of CHF3 and CF4.
- 22. A method according to claim 21, wherein said gases further comprise argon.
- 23. A method according to claim 22, wherein said gases comprise about 3-25% of said first fluorocarbons.
- 24. A method according to claim 23, wherein said gases comprise about 13-32% of said second fluorocarbons.
- 25. A method according to claim 23, wherein said gases comprise about 3-10% CHF3.
- 26. A method according to claim 25, wherein said gases comprise about 10-22% CF4
- 27. A method according to claim 26, wherein said gases comprise about 30-60% argon.
- 28. A method according to claim 23, wherein said gases comprise about 3-20% CH2F2.
- 29. A method according to claim 19, further comprising the steps of:
disposing said layered structure upon an electrode of a plasma etching chamber; and maintaining said electrode at a temperature of at least 30° C. during said etching.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This is a continuation application of co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 08/905,891, filed Aug. 4, 1997; which was a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/152,755, filed Nov. 15, 1993, which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 5,880,036 on Mar. 9, 1999; which was a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 07/898,505, filed Jun. 15, 1992, which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 5,286,344 on Feb. 15, 1994.
Continuations (3)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09344277 |
Jun 1999 |
US |
Child |
09923058 |
Aug 2001 |
US |
Parent |
08905891 |
Aug 1997 |
US |
Child |
09344277 |
Jun 1999 |
US |
Parent |
08152755 |
Nov 1993 |
US |
Child |
08905891 |
Aug 1997 |
US |
Continuation in Parts (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
07898505 |
Jun 1992 |
US |
Child |
08152755 |
Nov 1993 |
US |