摘要 |
A method for improving the electrical resistance of contacts on an integrated circuit. The method includes the steps of first exposing the contacts to a solvent, thereby removing organic contaminants; and then exposing the contacts to ion bombardment, thereby removing inorganic contaminants. The step of exposing the contacts to ion bombardment can remove a portion of the contact. The method may also include a step of oxidizing the pad to produce an oxide layer of a predetermined thickness. The ion bombardment can be carried out in a parallel plate etch tool or by using the RIE tool used to carry out a previous etch step. Another embodiment of the invention is a method of improving the resistance of contacts on an integrated circuit including the steps of: exposing the contacts to ion bombardment in the presence of a fluorine and oxygen plasma, thereby removing inorganic contaminants; and exposing the contacts to a solvent, thereby removing organic contaminants. The step of exposing the contacts to a solvent can remove a portion of the contact. The method can also include the step of oxidizing the pad to produce an oxide layer of a predetermined thickness. The ion bombardment can be carried out in an inductively coupled plasma etch tool, an RF/microwave plasma etch tool, or a tool combining these capabilities. The solvent in these embodiments is selected from the group consisting of n-methyl pyrrolidone, isopropyl alcohol, methanol, glycol, or a dimethylacetamide-based formulation, and is preferably a formulation comprising n-methylethanolamide, dimethylacetamide, 8-hydroxyquinoline, and water.
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