Background
In the semiconductor manufacturing process, the regeneration and recovery process of the carbon-doped silicon Nitride (NDC) and the etching process of the passivation layer can share the same process chamber so as to reduce the equipment cost. Referring to fig. 1, a first polymer 2 ' having a relatively high weight (mainly including an al-based polymer) is generated in a process chamber 1 ' during an etching process of a passivation layer and adheres to a surface of an upper electrode 11 '. When the surface of the upper electrode 11 ' is adhered with too much first polymer 2 ', the upper electrode 11 ' is too heavy to be cleaned, and thus is discarded. Therefore, the process chamber 1 ', especially the first polymer 2 ' adhered to the surface of the upper electrode 11 ', needs to be cleaned periodically to eliminate the memory effect of the process chamber 1 ' and prolong the service life of the upper electrode 11 ' and reduce the production cost.
The regeneration and recovery process of the silicon carbonitride doped realizes the regeneration and recovery of the silicon carbonitride doped by etching the silicon carbonitride doped layer on the surface of the wafer. When the first polymer 2 'is adhered to the surface of the upper electrode 11' of the process chamber 1 ', the silicon carbonitride doped during the regeneration and recovery process of the silicon carbonitride doped will react with the aluminum-based polymer in the first polymer 2' to form a second polymer 3 '(i.e., aluminum nitride polymer) and adhere to the edge of the electrostatic chuck 12'. Since the above process can reduce the amount of the first polymer attached to the surface of the upper electrode 11 ', a regeneration and recovery process of the silicon carbonitride doped silicon nitride is generally arranged before the cleaning of the process chamber 1 ' to reduce the production cost and time cost required for cleaning the first polymer 2 ' and to improve the production efficiency.
However, the second polymer 3 ' adhered to the edge of the electrostatic chuck 12 ' cannot be effectively removed during the cleaning process of the process chamber 1 ', resulting in the second polymer 3 ' remaining in the process chamber 1 ' after cleaning. When the cleaned process chamber 1 'is used for performing an etching process of a passivation layer, the second polymer 3' remaining on the electrostatic chuck 12 'is reduced to metal by hydrogen ions in the etching gas (i.e., the aluminum nitride polymer is reduced to metal aluminum by hydrogen ions), so that the resistance of the electrostatic chuck is reduced, the loop resistance of the process chamber 1' is reduced, the loop current of the electrostatic chuck 12 'is increased, the adsorption capability of the electrostatic chuck 12' is reduced, and the service life is reduced.
In practical production processes, an electrostatic Chuck (ESC) is usually scrapped due to the increase of the loop current of the process chamber when the ESC operates for about 1500-hour-2000 h. Therefore, there is a need to improve the problem of increased loop current of the electrostatic chuck to extend the service life of the electrostatic chuck.
Disclosure of Invention
The invention aims to provide a method for prolonging the service life of an electrostatic chuck, which prevents a polymer generated in a regeneration and recovery process of silicon carbonitride doped by carbon from being attached to the electrostatic chuck by preparing a protective layer on the electrostatic chuck, thereby preventing the resistance of the electrostatic chuck from being reduced due to the reduction of the polymer in a subsequent process, further preventing the adsorption capacity of the electrostatic chuck from being weakened, and prolonging the service life of the electrostatic chuck.
In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a method for prolonging the service life of an electrostatic chuck, comprising:
providing a process chamber, wherein the process chamber comprises an upper electrode positioned at the top of the process chamber and an electrostatic chuck positioned at the bottom of the process chamber, and a first polymer is attached to the surface of the upper electrode;
performing a polymer deposition process on the electrostatic chuck to form a protective layer on the surface of the electrostatic chuck;
carrying out a regeneration and recovery process of the silicon carbonitride doped in the process cavity so as to enable the silicon carbonitride doped to react with the first polymer to generate a second polymer which is attached to the surface of the protective layer;
and cleaning the process chamber to remove the protective layer and the second polymer.
Optionally, before the polymer deposition process, the method further comprises: and (3) an upper electrode cleaning process to reduce the first polymer attached to the surface of the upper electrode.
Optionally, the upper electrode cleaning process is plasma dry cleaning.
Optionally, the plasma dry cleaning process includes:
providing a first wafer and arranging the first wafer on the electrostatic chuck, introducing a first process gas into the process chamber, and increasing source radio frequency power and bias radio frequency power of the process chamber to reduce a first polymer on the surface of the upper electrode;
and moving the first wafer out of the reaction chamber.
Optionally, the first process gas comprises a fluorine-containing gas, oxygen, and an inert gas.
Optionally, the fluorine-containing gas comprises tetrafluoromethane and the inert gas comprises argon.
Optionally, the regeneration and recovery process of the silicon nitride doped with carbon comprises the following steps: and providing a second wafer with a carbon-doped silicon nitride layer formed on the surface, arranging the second wafer on the protective layer, and etching the carbon-doped silicon nitride layer to realize the regeneration and recovery of the carbon-doped silicon nitride.
Optionally, the polymer deposition process comprises: and introducing a second process gas into the process chamber, and depositing the second process gas on the surface of the electrostatic chuck to form a protective layer.
Optionally, the second process gas is a heavy polymer gas, including methane.
Optionally, the first polymer is formed in the process of performing an etching process of the passivation layer in the process chamber.
Optionally, the first polymer comprises an aluminum-based polymer and the second polymer comprises an aluminum nitride polymer.
In summary, the present invention provides a method for prolonging the service life of an electrostatic chuck, comprising: providing a process chamber, wherein the process chamber comprises an upper electrode positioned at the top of the process chamber and an electrostatic chuck positioned at the bottom of the process chamber, and a first polymer is attached to the surface of the upper electrode; performing a polymer deposition process on the electrostatic chuck to form a protective layer on the surface of the electrostatic chuck; performing a regeneration and recovery process of the silicon carbonitride doped in the process chamber to enable the silicon carbonitride doped with carbon to react with the first polymer to generate a second polymer which is attached to the surface of the protective layer; and cleaning the process chamber to remove the protective layer and the second polymer. The method for prolonging the service life of the electrostatic chuck can effectively remove the polymer attached to the electrostatic chuck generated in the regeneration and recovery process of the silicon nitride doped with carbon, and prevent the reduction of the surface resistance of the electrostatic chuck caused by the reduction of the polymer on the surface of the electrostatic chuck when the process cavity is subsequently used for carrying out the passivation layer etching process, thereby avoiding the reduction of the adsorption capacity of the electrostatic chuck and prolonging the service life of the electrostatic chuck.
Detailed Description
The following describes in more detail embodiments of the present invention with reference to the schematic drawings. The advantages and features of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description. It is to be noted that the drawings are in a very simplified form and are not to precise scale, which is provided for the purpose of facilitating and clearly illustrating embodiments of the present invention.
Fig. 2 is a flowchart of a method for prolonging a lifetime of an electrostatic chuck according to this embodiment. Referring to fig. 2, the method for improving the service life of the electrostatic chuck includes:
step S01: providing a process chamber, wherein the process chamber comprises an upper electrode positioned at the top of the process chamber and an electrostatic chuck positioned at the bottom of the process chamber, and a first polymer is attached to the surface of the upper electrode;
step S02: performing a polymer deposition process on the electrostatic chuck to form a protective layer on the surface of the electrostatic chuck;
step S03: performing a regeneration and recovery process of the silicon carbonitride doped in the process chamber to enable the silicon carbonitride doped with carbon to react with the first polymer to generate a second polymer which is attached to the surface of the protective layer;
step S04: and cleaning the process chamber to remove the protective layer and the second polymer.
Fig. 3-6 are schematic views of the process chamber corresponding to the steps in fig. 2. The method for improving the service life of the electrostatic chuck provided by the embodiment is described in detail below with reference to fig. 3 to 6.
First, referring to fig. 3, step S01 is performed to provide a process chamber 1 including an upper electrode 11 at the top of the process chamber 1 and an electrostatic chuck 12 at the bottom of the process chamber 1, wherein a first polymer 2 is attached to the surface of the upper electrode 1. Since the process chamber 1 can be used for the regeneration and recovery process of the silicon carbonitride doped silicon nitride and the etching process of the passivation layer, and the regeneration and recovery process of the silicon carbonitride doped silicon nitride is usually arranged before the process chamber 1 is cleaned, the first polymer 2 generated in the etching process of the passivation layer is attached to the upper electrode 11. The first polymer 2 comprises an aluminium-based polymer. It should be noted that, in other embodiments of the present invention, the first polymer 2 may also be generated by other processes performed in the process chamber 1, and the present invention is not limited herein.
Optionally, an upper electrode cleaning process is further included between step S01 and step S02. The upper electrode cleaning process can reduce the first polymer 2 attached to the surface of the upper electrode 11, and prevent the upper electrode 11 from being too heavy to be discarded. At the same time, the reduction of the first polymer 2 also contributes to the reduction of the second polymer 3 generated in step S03. Since the aluminum-based polymer present in the first polymer 2 easily forms an aluminum oxide passivation layer, preventing itself from being further oxidized or corroded, it is difficult for the upper electrode cleaning process to completely remove the first polymer 2 on the upper electrode 11.
The upper electrode cleaning process described in this embodiment is plasma dry cleaning. Specifically, referring to fig. 3, first, a first wafer 4 is disposed on the electrostatic chuck 12 to protect the electrostatic chuck 12 and prevent byproducts generated during the cleaning process from affecting the electrostatic chuck 12. Subsequently, a first process gas is introduced into the process chamber 1 while increasing the source rf power and the bias rf power of the process chamber 1 to clean the upper electrode 11. After the upper electrode cleaning process is completed, the first wafer 4 needs to be removed from the process chamber 1. Optionally, the first process gas comprises a fluorine-containing gas, oxygen, and an inert gas. In this embodiment, the fluorine-containing gas comprises tetrafluoromethane, and the inert gas comprises argon. In other embodiments of the present invention, the first process may be adjusted according to actual needs, and the present invention is not limited thereto. Meanwhile, the first wafer 4 may be replaced with other components capable of protecting the electrostatic chuck 12 during the top electrode cleaning process, which is not limited by the invention.
Next, referring to fig. 4, in step S02, a polymer deposition process is performed on the electrostatic chuck 12 to form a protective layer 121 on the surface of the electrostatic chuck 12. Specifically, the polymer deposition process comprises the following steps: a second process gas is introduced into the process chamber 1 and deposited on the surface of the electrostatic chuck 12 to form a protective layer 121. The polymer deposition process in this embodiment employs a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition method, including: introducing a second process gas under the condition that no wafer exists in the process cavity 1, and applying radio frequency power in the process cavity 1 to decompose gas molecules; the excited gas molecules tend to bond with other atoms to form a film (i.e., protective layer 121) that adheres to the surface of the electrostatic chuck 12. The second process gas is a heavy polymer gas (i.e., a carbon-containing gas of higher specific gravity). In this embodiment, the second process gas comprises methane. In other embodiments of the present invention, the second process gas may be selected according to actual needs, which is not limited by the present invention.
Next, referring to fig. 5, step S03 is performed to perform a regeneration and recovery process of the silicon carbonitride doped in the process chamber 1, so that the silicon carbonitride doped reacts with the first polymer 2 to form a second polymer 3 attached to the surface of the protection layer 121. Specifically, the regeneration and recovery process of the carbon-doped silicon nitride comprises the following steps: providing a second wafer 5 with a carbon-doped silicon nitride layer formed on the surface, disposing the second wafer 5 on the protective layer 121 and etching the carbon-doped silicon nitride layer to realize regeneration and recovery of the carbon-doped silicon nitride, wherein the first polymer 2 reacts with the carbon-doped silicon nitride in the etching process to generate a second polymer 3 attached to the surface of the protective layer 121. Optionally, the second polymer 3 comprises an aluminum nitride polymer.
Finally, referring to fig. 6, in step S04, the process chamber 1 is cleaned to remove the protective layer 121 and the second polymer 3. In this embodiment, the process chamber 1 is cleaned by a plasma dry method. Specifically, a cleaning gas is introduced into the process chamber 1, and the cleaning gas is excited into a plasma by using a radio frequency source (not shown in the figure); an electromagnetic field is formed between the upper electrode 11 and the electrostatic chuck 12, and the plasma bombards the electrostatic chuck 12 under the action of the electromagnetic field to remove the second polymer 3 and the protective layer 121 on the surface of the electrostatic chuck 12. Alternatively, the cleaning of the first polymer 2 on the surface of the upper electrode 11 can be achieved by adjusting the source rf power and the bias rf power (fig. 6 is an ideal case of the cleaning effect of the process chamber 1, and the first polymer 2 is difficult to be completely removed in the actual cleaning process). Optionally, the cleaning gas is a first process gas.
Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a loop when a passivation layer etching process is performed in a process chamber with a second polymer left, wherein a third wafer 6 (a passivation layer is formed on a surface of the third wafer) is disposed on a surface of the electrostatic chuck 12; rp, Rw and Re are internal resistances of the plasma, the third wafer 6 and the electrostatic chuck 12, respectively; r1 is the internal resistance of the high voltage power supply HV; r2 is leakage current sampling resistor; r3 is a filter resistor; c1 is a filter capacitor; and I is a loop circuit of the process chamber.
Referring to fig. 7, when the second polymer remains in the process chamber after the cleaning, the passivation layer etching process is performed to reduce the remaining second polymer to metal by hydrogen ions in the etching gas (i.e., the aluminum nitride polymer is reduced to aluminum metal by hydrogen ions), so that the internal resistance Re of the electrostatic chuck 12 is reduced, which results in an increase in the loop current I of the electrostatic chuck 12, and thus, the adsorption capability of the electrostatic chuck 12 is reduced, and the service life is reduced. When the first polymer remains in the cleaned process cavity, the etching process of the passivation layer can increase the amount of the first polymer attached to the surface of the upper electrode; in the regeneration and recovery process of silicon carbonitride doped, the first polymer reacts with the etched silicon carbonitride doped to form a second polymer, and the second polymer 3 may be removed according to steps S01 to S04. In summary, the first polymer remaining in the process chamber has no direct effect on the lifetime of the electrostatic chuck, and the second polymer remaining in the process chamber has a greater effect on the lifetime of the electrostatic chuck. The present invention does not require the cleaning effect of the first polymer described in step S04. In other embodiments of the present invention, the cleaning method of the process chamber may be adjusted according to actual needs, which is not limited in the present invention.
In an actual recycling process of doped silicon carbide, it is usually necessary to batch process a wafer (i.e., a second wafer) having a surface formed with doped silicon carbide. At this time, the method for prolonging the service life of the electrostatic chuck provided by the invention can be adjusted according to actual requirements. Specifically, step S01 is performed to provide a process chamber including an upper electrode on a top of the process chamber and an electrostatic chuck on a bottom of the process chamber, wherein a first polymer is attached to a surface of the upper electrode; optionally, step S01 may be followed by an upper electrode cleaning process to reduce the first polymer; then, repeating the steps S02-S04, wherein a wafer-less etching process (i.e., step S02) is required before any second wafer is etched (i.e., step S03 is performed); the process chamber needs to be cleaned after any second wafer is etched (i.e., step S04 is performed).
Fig. 8 and 9 are schematic diagrams illustrating the relationship between the operation time of the electrostatic chuck and the loop current of the process chamber in the prior art method and the present embodiment, respectively. Wherein the horizontal axis represents the usage time period T (in units of h) and the vertical axis represents the loop current I (in units of μ a). Referring to fig. 8, in the prior art, after the working length is greater than T1, the loop current I of the process chamber gradually increases, which results in the decrease of the adsorption capacity and the reduction of the service life of the electrostatic chuck; when the working length reaches T2, the electrostatic chuck is scrapped and needs to be replaced by a new electrostatic chuck. Referring to fig. 9, in the method for prolonging the service life of the electrostatic chuck provided by the present invention, as the operation duration of the electrostatic chuck gradually increases, the loop current I of the process chamber always remains stable without significant increase, and when the operation duration reaches T1 or T2, the electrostatic chuck can still work normally.
In summary, the present invention provides a method for prolonging the service life of an electrostatic chuck, comprising: providing a process chamber, wherein the process chamber comprises an upper electrode positioned at the top of the process chamber and an electrostatic chuck positioned at the bottom of the process chamber, and a first polymer is attached to the surface of the upper electrode; performing a polymer deposition process on the electrostatic chuck to form a protective layer on the surface of the electrostatic chuck; carrying out a regeneration and recovery process of the silicon carbonitride doped in the process cavity so as to enable the silicon carbonitride doped to react with the first polymer to generate a second polymer which is attached to the surface of the protective layer; and cleaning the process chamber to remove the protective layer and the second polymer. The method for prolonging the service life of the electrostatic chuck can effectively remove the polymer attached to the electrostatic chuck generated in the regeneration and recovery process of the silicon nitride doped with carbon, and prevent the reduction of the surface resistance of the electrostatic chuck caused by the reduction of the polymer on the surface of the electrostatic chuck when the process cavity is subsequently used for carrying out the passivation layer etching process, thereby avoiding the reduction of the adsorption capacity of the electrostatic chuck and prolonging the service life of the electrostatic chuck.
The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention and is not intended to limit the present invention in any way. Any person skilled in the art can make any equivalent substitutions or modifications on the technical solutions and technical contents disclosed in the present invention without departing from the scope of the technical solutions of the present invention, and still fall within the protection scope of the present invention without departing from the technical solutions of the present invention.