Apparatus for etching semiconductor samples and a source for providing a gas by sublimation thereto

Abstract

An etching apparatus for etching semi combustion samples may include one or more variable volume expansion chambers, two or more fixed volume expansion chambers, or combinations thereof in fluid communication with an etching chamber and a source of etching gas, such as xenon difluoride. The apparatus may further include a source of a mixing gas. An etching apparatus may also include a source of etching gas, an etching chamber in fluid communication with the source of etching gas, a flow controller connected between the source of etching gas and the etching chamber, and a vacuum pump in fluid communication with the etching chamber. A source for providing a gas by sublimation from a solid material is also provided, including a vacuum tight container and a mesh mounted in the interior of the vacuum tight container, wherein the mesh is adapted to receive and restrain the solid material.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO A RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60 / 233,512 filed on Sep. 19, 2000.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates to an apparatus for etching semiconductor samples. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus for etching semiconductor samples having a variable volume expansion chamber and to an apparatus having two or more fixed volume expansion chambers, wherein either apparatus may include an apparatus for detecting the end point of the etching process. The present invention also relates to an improved source for providing a gas by sublimination, in particular a source for providing a gas by sublimination to an apparatus described herein. BACKGROUND AND DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART [0003] The etching of silicon by xenon difluoride is well known. Xenon difluoride requires no external energy sources or ion bombardment to etch silicon, and it exhibits high sel...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

The largest drawback of the pulsed etch system described by Chu et al. relates to the cycling nature of the system.

Specifically, since the expansion chamber requires time to fill before the etch begins, is open to the main chamber during the etch, and is typically evacuated during the evacuation step of the cycle, it forms a rate-limiting step in the etching process.

This limitation, or bottleneck arises primarily from the time it takes to refill the expansion chamber with xenon difluoride gas after the evacuation step of the previous cycle.

The relatively expensive nature of xenon difluoride crystals makes this a major concern.

Furthermore, these continuous flow systems are much more sensitive to the geometry of the main chamber and to the placement of the xenon difluoride gas inlet hole(s) in the main chamber which may result in eddies in the flow of xenon difluoride gas.

Thus, the system described in Chu, et al. may not be attractive to these industries because it has an inherently high overhead.

However, raising the etching pressure in a system such as that described in Chu et al. may not be feasible. FIG. 2 is a graph of the xenon difluoride solid vapor pressure, wherein pressures above the curve at a particular temperature cause the vapor to solidify.

This is a critical limitation when the process is under full computer control, as found in semiconductor-type cluster tools, and visual inspection is not convenient or possible.

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