Lr. Allen et R. Rickard, TAPERED ALUMINUM INTERCONNECT ETCH, Journal of vacuum science & technology. A. Vacuum, surfaces, and films, 12(4), 1994, pp. 1265-1268
Citations number
NO
Categorie Soggetti
Physics, Applied","Materials Science, Coatings & Films
Tapered etching of the aluminum interconnects can assist in planarizat
ion of multilevel interconnects by improving step coverage of chemical
vapor deposited oxides in tightly spaced arrays. Previously published
results have shown that a tapered aluminum profile is formed by addin
g small amounts of hydrocarbon gases to Cl2-based etch chemistries [Co
burn, Winters, and Chung, J. Appl. Phys. 48, 3532 (1977)]. This proces
s relies on the formation of a relatively thick polymer sidewall to ac
hieve the tapered profile. While this mechanism is effective, it can b
e hard to remove the polymer after etch. A tapered profile was achieve
d in a transformer coupled plasma etcher using only additions of N2. T
he polymer sidewall formed during the etch was easily removed with the
remaining photoresist. Measurements of the metal lines after etch and
cross sections with the resist intact showed that the top dimension o
f the line was unchanged by the etch while the base of the line was la
rger than the base of the photoresist. Even though etch rate results s
how a loss of photoresist selectivity, cross sections show no loss in
linewidth of the top of the resulting metal line compared to starting
resist linewidth indicating that the slope is achieved by increased si
dewall passivation rather than by a typical resist erosion mechanism s
o the slope of the line is independent of the slope of the resist prio
r to etch.