Method and apparatus for dielectric etching during integrated circuit fabrication

摘要

A method for multi-step dielectric etching includes discharge steps between each of the etching steps in order to help release accumulated charge on the wafer produced by the previous etching step. The discharge steps stabilize the plasma discharge in each transition between etching steps. Charge elimination occurs because the negative species is relatively higher at the beginning of plasma spiking and can reach the wafer surface to reduce the accumulated charge.