Plasma/reactor walls interactions in advanced gate etching processes

Wafer-to-wafer reproducibility is a major challenge in gate etching processes. Periodic dry cleaning of the reactor in F-based chemistry between wafers is the most common strategy to ensure process repeatability. However X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy analysis of the chamber walls show that this cleaning procedure leaves AlF_x species on the reactor walls, eventually resulting in process drifts and formation of particles. We have thus investigated a new cleaning/conditioning strategy of plasma etching reactors, in which the chamber walls are coated by a carbon-rich film between each wafer, allowing stable processing conditions and highly anisotropic etching profile to be achieved in advanced gate stacks. Finally, we present a new method (based on the detection of Cl₂ by laser absorption) to characterize the reactor walls conditions that could prevent process drifts.