Waferless clean in dielectric etch process

Abstract

A system and method for a waferless cleaning method for a capacitive coupled plasma system. The method includes forming a protective layer on a top surface of an electrostatic chuck, volatilizing etch byproducts deposited on one or more inner surfaces of the plasma process chamber, removing volatilized etch byproducts from the plasma process chamber and removing the protective layer from the top surface of the electrostatic chuck. A capacitive coupled plasma system including a waferless cleaning recipe is also described.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates generally to semiconductor etch processes, and more particularly, to methods and systems for cleaning etch process chambers. Background technique [0002] A semiconductor wafer is typically placed in an etch chamber with a photoresist mask layer to guide the etching of the underlying material. The etch process removes the underlying material not covered by the photoresist. The etch process also removes a portion of the photoresist. [0003] Etch byproducts include a mixture of etchant chemicals, photoresist, and underlying materials that condense on the walls and any other surfaces within the etch process chamber. Typically, an oxygen-based plasma wafer-free cleaning process is used to volatilize etch by-products. Volatile etch by-products can then be evacuated or purged from the etch process chamber. [0004] As device dimensions have become smaller, these materials in the mask layer have changed to include hard mask ...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Eventually, titanium-containing etch by-products can be stripped from the inner surfaces of the etch chamber and lead to excess particles on the wafer

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