POST-ASH SIDEWALL HEALING

摘要

OF THE DISCLOSURE POST-ASH SIDEWALL HEALINGMethods of decreasing the effective dielectric constant present between two conducting components of an integrated circuit are described. The methods involve the use of a gas phase etch which is selective towards the oxygen-rich portion of the low-K dielectric layer. The etch rate attenuates as the etch process passes through the relatively high-K oxygen-rich portion and reaches the low-K portion. The etch process may be easily timed since the gas phase etch process does not readily remove the desirable low-K portion.(Figure 1)