Radiation imagery chemistry: process – composition – or product th – Imaging affecting physical property of radiation sensitive... – Radiation sensitive composition or product or process of making
Reexamination Certificate
2001-01-31
2002-09-17
Duda, Kathleen (Department: 1756)
Radiation imagery chemistry: process, composition, or product th
Imaging affecting physical property of radiation sensitive...
Radiation sensitive composition or product or process of making
C430S311000, C438S763000, C438S948000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06451504
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates generally to semiconductor processing methods of promoting adhesion of photoresist to an outer substrate layer predominantly comprising silicon nitride.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Microcircuit fabrication involves provision of precisely controlled quantities of impurities into small regions of a silicon substrate, and subsequently interconnecting these regions to create components and integrated circuits. The patterns that define such regions are typically created by a photolithographic process. Such processing sets the horizontal dimensions on the various parts of the devices and circuits. Photolithography is a multistep pattern transfer process similar to stenciling or photography. In photolithograpy, the required pattern is first formed in reticles or photomasks and transferred into the surface layer(s) of the wafer through photomasking steps.
Inherent in photolithograpy is application and adherence of photoresist materials to underlying substrates. The resist must be capable of adhering to these surfaces through all the resist processing and etch steps. Poor adhesion brings about severe undercutting, loss of resolution, or possibly the complete loss of the pattern. Wet etching techniques demand a high level of adhesion of the resist film to the underlying substrates.
Various techniques are used to increase the adhesion between resist and a substrate such as, a) dehydration baking prior to coating; b) use of hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) and vapor priming systems to promote resist adhesion for polysilicon, metals and SiO
2
layers, and c) elevated temperature post-bake cycles. HMDS functions as an effective adhesion promoter for silicon and silicon oxide containing films, but provides effectively no surface-linking adhesion promotion with respect to silicon nitride films.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to develop alternate and improved techniques for providing better adhesion of photoresist to silicon nitride films.
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Martin Annette L.
Niroomand Ardavan
Rolfson J. Brett
Duda Kathleen
Micro)n Technology, Inc.
Wells St. John P.S.
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