Selective dry etching of tantalum and tantalum nitride

摘要

The invention describes a method for the selective dry etching of tantalum and tantalum nitride films. Tantalum nitride layers ( 30 ) are often used in semiconductor manufacturing. The semiconductor substrate is exposed to a reducing plasma chemistry which passivates any exposed copper ( 40 ). The tantalum or tantalum nitride films are selectively removed using an oxidizing plasma chemistry.