Metal Selective Polymer Removal

The density of devices fabricated on semiconductor substrates has increased steadily over the years with ultra large scale integration (ULSI) currently being employed in 16 megabit (MB) dynamic random access memories (DRAMs). Accompanying this trend have been decreased feature sizes (currently less than or equal to 0.5 microns) and increased demands on process technology. To pattern such small features, conventional lithographic procedures are being supplanted by newer ones based on diffusion enhanced silylated resist DESIRE.TM. processes. The numerous reports of the success of the diffusion enhanced silylated processes in producing sub-half micron features in various resists, using one line and deep ultra violet light exposure indicates this process has a bright future. The resolution and throughput rate up to the image transfer step exceeds that of conventional positive resists and are clearly superior when topography is of major concern. The resist is somewhat more difficult to remove with diffusion enhanced silylated resist processes as compared with conventional processes as a result of larger amounts of etch byproducts such as sidewall polymer (SWP) on vertical walls of a device undergoing fabrication. These byproducts, generally referred to as polymers, are generally comprised of a metal and SiO.sub.2 molecule. For instance, the molecule can comprise carbon from the photoresist, metal from the metal layer and SiO.sub.2. Further, data has indicated that sidewall polymer is comprised of aluminum silicate and very small amounts of fluorocarbons. Fluorocarbons are noncombustible and therefore are not removed during an O.sub.2 in-situ ash sequence of a metal etch. Thus, ashing has proven to be ineffective because of the high carbon content in the byproduct molecule from the photoresist. The difficulty with which resist can be removed has proven to be a severe impediment to the generation of sub-half micron features. Previously solvent/ultrasonic agitation had been used to remove SWP. For instance, soaking the device undergoing fabrication in an ethanolamine solution followed optionally with ultrasonic agitation using a Ney ultrasonic (which allows the capability of adjusting the power of the ultrasonic) has been used in the past. However, these techniques prove to be unusable because of the tendency of metal, such as aluminum, to lift off of the minimum features. Further, these techniques tend to leave behind significant amounts of residue on device sidewalls and on device surfaces. Until now, no effective means has been available to solve the problem of removing sidewall polymer resulting from diffusion enhanced silyated resist processes.

A process to remove the sidewall polymer without metal lift-off is disclosed.

FIGS. 1 through 6 are drawings in which applicable reference numerals have been carried forward, which illustrate cross-sectional views of a semiconductor wafer undergoing fabrication according to a diffusion enhanced silyated resist process.

Late in the fabrication sequence, specific devices such as DRAMs must be electrically interconnected to accomplish the desired circuit function. One important aspect of this interconnection concerns the second interconnect level and the last level in the manufacture of the device, conventionally known as Metal 2 (M2). The M2 scheme as shown in the cross-sectional FIG. 1, conventionally comprises a Si O.sub.2 substrate followed by metal 2 which generally comprises a layer of titanium tungsten (TiW) under tungsten (W) which lies under aluminum alloy which includes 1% silicon and 0.5% copper. With reference to FIGS. 1 through 6 which illustrate cross-sectional views of a semiconductor wafer 1 undergoing fabrication according to a diffusion enhanced silylated resist process, that process is as follows. A positive resist such as a novolac-based resist 2 is conventionally spin-coated and after subsequent exposure through mask 4, resist 2 is treated with hexamethyldisilazine vapor (HMDS) prior to development. The silyation reaction modifies the surface of the exposed resist, yielding areas 6 which are less susceptible to dry etching by O.sub.2 plasmas. This reverses the normal development behavior of the resist and affords a negative image. A main advantage of dry etching the unexposed (and hence underivatized) resist is that it circumvents the undesirable swelling and the concomitant loss of resolution that often accompanies wet etch development. As shown in FIG. 3, an oxygen plasma etch etches away the unexposed resist. In order to transfer the pattern into the metal, the wafer is dry etched with an anisotropic reactive ion etching (RIE). The chemistries used are Cl.sub.2 /BCl.sub.3 to etch the aluminum alloy followed by SF.sub.6 /Ar to etch the W and TiW. Fine line geometries with essentially vertical walls are ideally obtained as shown in FIG. 4. The final step in the etch is an in situ ash which reduces corrosion by oxidizing the responsible chlorine-containing compounds and removes areas 6 which function as bulk resist masks. This etch is greater than 20:1 selective to the SiO.sub.2 substrate. The etch is anisotropic because during the process a nonvolatile polymer (SWP) is deposited on the surfaces being etched which protects the underlying surfaces against etching by reactive gas. Stripping of remaining resist and SWP is the last step in the process flow for this level. The invention's process is a vapor phase process which involves anhydrous HF and N.sub.2 H.sub.x where x is a real number (N.sub.2 H.sub.x is achievable by passing nitrogen over water), introduced in a chamber with the wafer to be processed, which react to make the etch byproducts 5 water soluble. After the byproducts acquire their water soluble property, water is applied to the wafer so as to rinse the byproduct away, as shown in FIG. 5. Note that aqueous HF can be substituted for anhydrous HF- i.e. one can make vapor HF from aqueous HF and react it with the aforementioned N.sub.2 +H.sub.2 O. Vapor phase processing provides an advantage or other types of processing in that it will not corrode metal like aqueous phase or liquid phase processing. Experimental data indicates that after processing according to the invention, the sheet resistance on the metal does not change, thereby indicating the reactions during processing do not harm metal. Further, damage resulting from processing to the silicon dioxide substrate can be controlled through the regulation of vapor. The process of the invention can be accomplished using a wafer vapor phase cleaner. A wafer vapor phase cleaner is a machine that removes oxides from a wafer. Wafer vapor phase cleaners include the Advantage, Equinox and Excaliber machines and a vapor HF tool, VPC-811-A by DNS. Until now, no one has used a wafer vapor phase cleaner to remove byproducts of the type discussed above. Cost savings from the invention's process is expected at this time to be approximately 0.03 cents per wafer as compared with current solvent processing methods which incur costs of around $1.50 per wafer. Additionally, there is a safety advantage associated with the invention in that there is virtually no waste disposal as compared with solvents which incidently cannot be diluted.

An exemplary process flow is illustrative of the preferred embodiment of the invention is given below:

In a wafer vapor phase cleaner, such as an Excaliber, wafers that have been processed according to diffusion enhanced silylated resist processes are etched in a sealed etch chamber and then transported to the rinse position by moving the chamber vertically to expose the rinse cavity of the wafer vapor phase cleaner. The two separate process' for the etch and the rinse positions are as follows:

One example of a process program using an Excaliber system is given below. Note that the etch and rinse recipes are exemplary only and that a more or less optimized process recipe may not use the same recipes.

One application with which the foregoing described process can be used concerns deformable mirror devices (DMDs). FIG. 6 illustrates a cross-sectional drawing of stack 8 upon which the DMD is formed. This stack comprises bulk semiconductor layer 9, CMOS addressing circuitry 10, photoresist layer 12, and metal layer 14. With reference to FIG. 7 which illustrates a cross-sectional view of a partially formed DMD device, etching of metal layer 14, shown in FIG. 6, according to well known DMD formation techniques results in the formation of hinges 16 connected to mirrors 18. Hinges 16 are connected to metal posts 20 which are formed through vias which extend down to the level of the CMOS addressing circuitry 10 (as shown by the hidden lines). Reference numerals 21 represent sidewall polymer which results during the fabrication of the DMD device. An even greater presence of sidewall polymer 21 can exist after etch away of photoresist layer 12. The sidewall polymer presents particularly annoying problems for DMD functionality in that it can interfere with the swiveling (into or out of the page) of mirrors 18 so that they can make contact with CMOS addressing circuitry 10 after layer 12 is removed. With reference to FIG. 8, which illustrates a cross-sectional view of a completed DMD device according to the invention's process, after layer 12 of FIG. 7 is removed, the invention's sidewall polymer removal process is used to eliminate sidewall polymer 21, thereby greatly increasing the production yield of the DMD device.

Although the invention has been described in detail herein with reference to its preferred embodiment and certain described alternatives, it is to be understood that this description is by way of example only, and it is not to be construed in a limiting sense. Although the invention has been described in some aspects as refering to a DESIRE.TM. process, it is to be understood that the foregoing invention can be used with any photoresist process. It is to be further understood that numerous changes in the details of the embodiments of the invention, and additional embodiments of the invention, will be apparent to, and may be made by, persons of ordinary skill in the art having reference to this description. It is contemplated that all such changes and additional embodiments are within the spirit and true scop of the invention as claimed below.