Description:

The Lam 9600 is intended to etch aluminum metal and TiW layers with highly vertical sidewalls suitable for 0.35 um linewidth. The plasma is a medium-high density, transformer coupled plasma, similar to ICP sources, allowing separate control of coil (top electrode) power and platen (lower electrode) power. In the chamber, the wafers are ESC clamped to a water cooled platen and He backside gas provides coupling. Cl2/BCl3 chemistry is used for Al and SF6 for TiW layers. The TiW etching and Cl-passivation step (also using SF6) may be done in the exit lock or in the main chamber. Cl-chemistry is expected to be effective on Al2O3 layers as well as silicon trenches with minimum undercut.

Key Features and Accessories:

Process gases: Cl2, BCl3,SF6, CF4, Ar, N2, O2. Process pressure 0-100 mTorr, top electrode power 0 - 1250W, lower electrode power 0 - 1200W. Process temperature 55°C. Adjustable monochromator is used for endpoint detection. It is equiped with a decoupled source quartz (DSQ) strip module to remove (strip) the photoresist from the wafers. The DSQ process drastically reduces the probability of particle contamination and increases the efficiency of the strip process. 

Key Specifications:

Standard recipe 600/601 for Al etching:
Etch rate: 800 nm/min, 
Photoresist etch rate: 400nm/min 
Standard recipe 640 for Al2O3 etching:
Etch rate: 100-120nm/min

Substrate Size:

150 mm diameter

Allowed Materials:

Al, Al2O3, TiO2, poly Si, Nb and a variety of nitrides may be etched using Cl-chemistry

Forbidden Materials:

Non IC-compatible materials

Availability and Cost:

Availability: F
Cost: High