Claims
- 1. An apparatus for exposing a photoresist-developed substrate, comprising:
a chamber, the chamber having at least one gas inlet, the gas inlet being adapted to introduce a gas into the chamber; a support within the chamber; and a substrate on the support, the substrate having at least one developed photoresist layer, the substrate being exposed to a curing environment within the chamber, the curing environment being defined through the introduction of the gas through the gas inlet and causing at least a portion of the developed photoresist layer to convert to a hardened layer.
- 2. The apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein the developed photoresist layer is a silicon containing photoresist.
- 3. The apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein the gas is one of oxygen and ammonia.
- 4. The apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein the chamber is an etch chamber.
- 5. The apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein the hardened layer has a thickness of between about 5% to about 75% of the developed photoresist layer.
- 6. The apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein the hardened layer is one of silicon dioxide and silicon nitride.
- 7. The apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein a temperature of the curing environment is between about −30° C. and about 70° C.
- 8. The apparatus as recited in claim 3, wherein the oxygen flow rate into the chamber is between about 50 sccm and about 500 sccm.
- 9. The apparatus as recited in claim 3, wherein the ammonia flow rate into the chamber is between about 100 sccm and about 2000 sccm.
- 10. An apparatus for curing a photoresist on a substrate, comprising:
a chamber, the chamber having at least one gas inlet, the gas inlet being adapted to introduce a gas into the chamber; a support within the chamber; and a substrate on the support, the substrate having a first photoresist layer and a second photoresist layer, the first photoresist layer being disposed over the second photoresist layer, the first photoresist layer being formulated to contain a hardening agent, the hardening agent interacting with the gas to form a hardened layer at a top region of the first photoresist layer.
- 11. The apparatus as recited in claim 10, wherein the gas is one of oxygen and ammonia.
- 12. The apparatus as recited in claim 10, wherein the support is a chuck.
- 13. The apparatus as recited in claim 10, wherein the second photoresist layer is about 6000 Å.
- 14. The apparatus as recited in claim 10, wherein an etch selectivity ratio of the first photoresist layer and the second photoresist layer is between about 8 and about 15.
- 15. The apparatus as recited in claim 10, wherein the hardening agent is silicon.
- 16. The apparatus as recited in claim 10, wherein the hardened layer includes one of silicon dioxide and silicon nitride.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a divisional application of copending prior U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/894,649 filed on Jun. 27, 2001 entitled “PLASMA ENHANCED METHOD FOR INCREASING SILICON-CONTAINING PHOTORESIST SELECTIVITY”, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Divisions (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09894649 |
Jun 2001 |
US |
Child |
10346470 |
Jan 2003 |
US |