Manufacturability improvements of inductively coupled plasma etch chambers in PVD tools

To accommodate the decreasing gate oxide thickness associated with Digital´s new 0.5 μm technology, the hardware for the pre-metallization sputter etches was retrofitted to reduce plasma damage. This change consisted of replacing the triode sputtering chambers in five sputtering tools with inductively coupled plasma sources. The new hardware not only had to be fully characterized and optimized, but required another climb up the manufacturability learning curve for particulate control and maintainability. Over a year and a half period, new procedures to improve availability were implemented resulting in a 9,000 wafer increase in the number of wafers run between etch chambers preventative maintenance intervals.