Overview

The Tegal 903e is an inline RIE/plasma production etcher configured for six-inch wafers. It is a single-wafer, cassette-to-cassette driven tool with easy-to-use menu control and a 13.56 MHz RF Generator. The input gases are controlled by MFC, with up to 4 MFCs in the system. This tool implements multi-step etch recipes using multiple process gases and has been optimized for specific etches of specific films. Gases available in this configuration are N2, O2, SF6, CHF3, and He. The Tegal 903e plasma dry etch equipment is used by the semiconductor industry for integrated circuit fabrication. It is an industry standard in single-wafer dry etch of silicon nitride, polysilicon, amorphous silicon, and silicon oxide. Wafers are transported to a reaction chamber utilizing a non-friction spatula wafer transport mechanism. A gas mixture is introduced into the Reaction Chamber and becomes reactive by the application of radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic radiation. The reactive mixture, or plasma, etches away material that is not covered by the masking photoresist. The etch process is terminated by time (a parameter specified in the recipe), the wafer is unloaded from the reaction chamber, and a new wafer is introduced repeating the cycle until all wafers have been processed.