Conformal amorphous carbon for spacer and spacer protection applications

摘要

A method of forming a nitrogen-doped amorphous carbon layer on a substrate in a processing chamber is provided. The method generally includes depositing a predetermined thickness of a sacrificial dielectric layer over a substrate, forming patterned features on the substrate by removing portions of the sacrificial dielectric layer to expose an upper surface of the substrate, depositing conformally a predetermined thickness of a nitrogen-doped amorphous carbon layer on the patterned features and the exposed upper surface of the substrate, selectively removing the nitrogen-doped amorphous carbon layer from an upper surface of the patterned features and the upper surface of the substrate using an anisotropic etching process to provide the patterned features filled within sidewall spacers formed from the nitrogen-doped amorphous carbon layer, and removing the patterned features from the substrate.

主权项

1. A method of processing a substrate in a processing chamber, comprising:
depositing a dielectric layer on a substrate; depositing a sacrificial structural layer on an upper surface of the dielectric layer; transferring a pattern into the sacrificial structural layer by removing portions of the sacrificial structural layer to expose portions of the upper surface of the dielectric layer; forming a spacer layer conformally on the portions of the upper surface of the dielectric layer and on remaining portions of the sacrificial structural layer; after the forming a spacer layer conformally on the portions of the upper surface of the dielectric layer and on remaining portions of the sacrificial structural layer, forming a protection layer conformally on the spacer layer without removing the spacer layer, wherein the protection layer is an amorphous carbon material; after the forming a protection layer conformally on the spacer layer, selectively removing a portion of the protection layer using an anisotropic etching process to expose the spacer layer on remaining upper surfaces of the sacrificial structural layer and to expose the spacer layer on the portions of the upper surface of the dielectric layer; after the selectively removing a portion of the protection layer, selectively removing the spacer layer using an anisotropic etching process to expose the upper surface of the patterned sacrificial structural layer and to expose the upper surface of the dielectric layer, wherein the forming a protection layer conformally on the spacer layer is performed before the selectively removing the spacer layer; then completely removing remaining portions of the protection layer without removing the patterned sacrificial structural layer and the spacer layer; and then removing the patterned sacrificial structural layer and removing exposed portions of the dielectric layer using the spacer layer as a hardmask.