Semiconductor device manufacturing: process – Coating of substrate containing semiconductor region or of... – By reaction with substrate
Reexamination Certificate
2000-08-23
2001-08-14
Niebling, John F. (Department: 2812)
Semiconductor device manufacturing: process
Coating of substrate containing semiconductor region or of...
By reaction with substrate
C438S769000, C438S770000, C438S772000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06274513
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of oxidizing a nitride film on a conductive substrate. The method utilizes electric field to pass through and oxidize the nitride film, and it has wide applications because of its fast reacting speed and simple steps of operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Silicon dioxide (SiO
2
) and silicon nitride (Si
3
N
4
) are two essential materials for fabrication of semiconductor devices. The isolation property of the Si—SiO
2
interface is better than that of the Si—Si
3
N
4
interface, and therefore SiO
2
layers generally serve as isolation materials in the conventional process of micrometer scale.
To achieve high integration density and improve operation speed, the ultra-large-scale integrated circuits tend to scale down into the nanometer regime. In the nanometer process, the required thickness of an isolation layer is about 2~3 nm. Tunneling effects will occur in the isolation layer made of SiO
2
under such thickness demand, and therefore the SiO
2
layer is no longer a good material for isolation. On the contrary, the Si
3
N
4
films and SiO
x
N
y
films may become the essential materials for isolation in the nanometer process.
In addition, a series of photolithography steps and etching steps can carry out according to several defined patterns in fabricating semiconductor devices. During etching process, each of SiO
2
, Si
3
N
4
, SiO
x
N
y
, or Si has different etching selectivity corresponding to the etching solvent; therefore they can be selected to serve as masks or etching targets. It is noted that forming oxidized regions in a nitride film is advantageous to define etching patterns in fabricating semiconductor devices.
At present, the scanning probe microscope such as atomic force microscope (AFM) and scanning tunneling microscope (STM) can generate a local electric field adjacent to its probe to carry out oxidizing process. However, its application is restricted to oxidize the surface regions of the semiconductors and metals, not yet applied for oxidizing the nitride films formed on a conductive substrate.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a method of oxidizing a nitride film on a conductive substrate. The method comprises the following steps. First, a conductive substrate is provided, and a nitride film is formed on the main surface of the conductive substrate by performing film deposition process or directly nitridating the surface region of the conductive substrate. Then, a local electrode terminal (such as a conductive probe of the AFM) is provided, and a strong electric field is locally generated between the electrode terminal and the conductive substrate in an oxidizing environment (such as the absorbed water layer in ambient), wherein the strong electric field passes through the nitride film, thereby oxidizing the nitride film passed by the electric field.
The method of oxidizing a nitride film according to, the present invention can be applied to define etching patterns on a nitride film. In addition, the method can be applied to memory media for information recording, ascribing to the fast oxidation speed. Meanwhile, the method can be applied to form growth templates for the use in the chemical selective formation process, because the nitride films and the. surface of the conductive substrate have different growth properties.
REFERENCES:
patent: 6000947 (1999-12-01), Minne et al.
patent: 6001748 (1999-12-01), Tanaka et al.
patent: 6114258 (2000-09-01), Miner et al.
patent: 6190508 (2001-02-01), Peng et al.
Chao Tien-Sheng
Chen Tom
Chou Ya-Chang
Gwo Shangjr
Darby & Darby
Ghyka Alexander G.
Niebling John F.
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