An object is to provide a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device, in which the number of photolithography steps can be reduced, the manufacturing process can be simplified, and manufacturing can be performed with high yield at low cost A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device includes the following steps: forming a semiconductor film; irradiating a laser beam by passing the laser beam through a photomask including a shield for shielding the laser beam; subliming a region which has been irradiated with the laser beam through a region in which the shield is not formed in the photomask in the semiconductor film; forming an island-shaped semiconductor film in such a way that a region which is not irradiated with the laser beam is not sublimed because it is a region in which the shield is formed in the photomask; forming a first electrode which is one of a source electrode and a drain electrode and a second electrode which is the other one of the source electrode and the drain electrode; forming a gate insulating film; and forming a gate electrode over the gate insulating film

Method for Manufacturing Semiconductor Device

In a state that a plate-shaped insulator is disposed adjacent to a plate-shaped electrode, a discharge gas containing an inert gas is supplied to a vicinity of a processing object from one gas exhaust port located nearer from the plate-shaped electrode, out of at least two-line gas exhaust ports which are disposed around the plate-shaped electrode and which are formed so as to be surrounded by the plate-shaped insulator and moreover which are different in distance to the plate-shaped electrode from each other, while a discharge control gas is supplied from the other gas exhaust port to the vicinity of the processing object. Simultaneously with the supply of the gases, electric power is supplied to the plate-shaped electrode or the processing object, by which plasma processing of the processing object is carried out. Thus, plasma processing method and apparatus capable of processing for desired fine linear portions with high precision are provided.

Plasma processing method and apparatus

A plasma processing apparatus wherein a layer structure consisting of plural layers formed in stack one upon another on a semiconductor wafer placed on the sample holder located in the process chamber, is etched with plasma generated in the process chamber by supplying high frequency power to the electrode disposed in the sample holder, the apparatus comprising a ring-shaped electrode disposed above the electrode and around the periphery of the top portion of the sample holder, an outer circumferential ring of dielectric material disposed above the ring-shaped electrode and opposite to the plasma, and a power source for supplying power at different values to the ring-shaped electrode depending on the sorts of layers of the layer structure.

Plasma Processing Apparatus

Embodiments described herein provide methods for removing native oxide surfaces on substrates while simultaneously passivating the underlying substrate surface. In one embodiment, a method is provided which includes positioning a substrate containing an oxide layer within a processing chamber, adjusting a first temperature of the substrate to about 80°C or less, generating a cleaning plasma from a gas mixture within the processing chamber, such that the gas mixture contains ammonia and nitrogen trifluoride having an NH3/NF3 molar ratio of about 10 or greater, and condensing the cleaning plasma onto the substrate. A thin film, containing ammonium hexafluorosilicate, is formed in part, from the native oxide during a plasma clean process. The method further includes heating the substrate to a second temperature of about 100°C or greater within the processing chamber while removing the thin film from the substrate and forming a passivation surface thereon.

Passivation layer formation by plasma clean process to reduce native oxide growth

In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a plasma reactor has a capacitive electrode driven by an RF power source, and the electrode capacitance is matched at the desired plasma density and RF source frequency to the negative capacitance of the plasma, to provide an electrode plasma resonance supportive of a broad process window within which the plasma may be sustained.

Plasma reactor with overhead RF electrode tuned to the plasma

In a plasma equipment and a plasma treatment method of a semiconductor device capable of reducing electron shading effect and also suppressing charge damage without affecting various characteristics in plasma process, a distance between a substrate bias electrode and A counter electrode is set less than two times as long as a mean free path of electron. High frequency electric power of 100 kHz to 1 MHz is supplied to the substrate bias electrode, while high frequency electric power of 1 MHz to 100 MHz is supplied to the counter electrode.

Plasma treatment method

A plasma processing system including a signal sampling unit for measuring electric signals reflecting a plasma condition; a model expression memory for storing a model expression for relating values of the electric signals with plasma processing characteristics; a computing unit for substituting the values of the electric signals measured by the signal sampling unit into the model expression read from the model expression memory to computer predicted values of the plasma processing characteristics; and a diagnosing unit for diagnosing a condition of a plasma, based on the predicted values of the plasma processing characteristics. The plasma processing system of this structure permits a condition of a plasma to be estimated by substituting realtime measured electric signals into a model expression, whereby when a change of plasma processing characteristics occurs, the operator can immediately know it. Accordingly, occurrence of a large number of defective wafers can be precluded.

Plasma processing system

A method and an apparatus for plasma etching semiconductor materials by providing an intermediate electrode between the electrodes in a parallel state type plasma etching apparatus, moving the intermediate electrode by a drive mechanism, and continuously changing from a condition of high input power and high self-bias voltage to a condition of low input power and low self-bias voltage while varying the distance between the intermediate electrode and the first electrode and the RF power, thereby to remove damage or deposits that may have been formed on the surface when the semiconductor material was being subjected to processing.

Method and apparatus for plasma etching

In reticle production for 90-nm node generation and beyond, quite strict chrome CD control is strongly demanded. For chrome dry-etching process, esetablishment of reliable system for chrome endpoint detection is one of critical issues. In this paper, the effectiveness of radio frequency (RF) sensor as a process monitor for chrome dry-etching was examined. As general endpoint detection system, such as Laser endpoint detection (Laser EPD) and optical emission spectroscopy (OES), the system based on RF sensor shows the ability to get chrome endpoint. Experimental data implied its competence as an endpoint detector for the plates of various chrome loads with enough stability and reliability. Moreover, this sensor has an advantage that plasma impedance observed with the sensor has a correlation with etching performance, such as etching bias and its uniformity. This property is useful, because feedback of the variation of sensor output to process condition is able to play important role in control of reticle CD. As a consequence, the concept of advanced process control based on the RF sensor is proposed.

Makoto Kosugi

Papers

Plasma treatment method

Plasma processing system

Method and apparatus for plasma etching

Process monitoring of chrome dry-etching with RF sensor for reticle production beyond 90-nm node

Plasma equipment and plasma processing method