| 摘要 |
A semiconductor wafer is processed so as to inhibit corrosion of aluminum or other metal interconnection lines thereon. The anti-corrosion processing of the wafer takes place after forming a metal layer on a semiconductor wafer, masking the metal layer with resist and reactive ion etching the conductive layer in an evacuated chamber so as to form metal interconnection lines. The semiconductor wafer is then moved under vacuum to a second evacuated chamber, where an oxide is formed on sidewalls of the metal layer by heating the semiconductor wafer while flowing dry oxygen-containing gas. The oxide on the sidewalls of the metal layer prevents corrosion of the metal layer by reactive halogen compounds remaining on the semiconductor wafer after the reactive ion etching step. The resist remaining on the wafer is removed after the semiconductor wafer is removed from the second evacuated chamber. Typically, the metal layer is formed from aluminum or aluminum-copper alloy, or from a successive layers of tungsten/titanium and aluminum-copper. The oxide formation step is preferably performed by heating the wafer to a temperature not exceeding 450 DEG C. while flowing dry oxygen-containing gas, at a pressure or about one atmosphere or less, through the second evacuated chamber.
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