A method of etching into an indium-based semiconductor material. The method comprises mounting a substrate comprising the indium-based semiconductor material directly on a substrate support structure in a plasma processing chamber, wherein the indium-based semiconductor material forms a surface of the substrate, said surface carrying a patterned mask and being arranged distal to the substrate support structure. The plasma processing chamber contains solid silicon arranged to be exposed to plasma generated inside the plasma processing chamber, the exposed surface area of the solid silicon being at least 1 times the area of the surface of the substrate carrying the patterned mask which is not covered by the patterned mask. The method further comprises: establishing a flow of an etch gas mixture into the plasma processing chamber, the etch gas mixture comprising an inert gas and a chlorine-bearing gas configured to release chlorine radicals when present in plasma generated from the etch gas mixture; and generating a plasma from the etch gas mixture within the plasma processing chamber such that the solid silicon is exposed to the plasma, thereby generating silicon-containing species in the plasma from the solid silicon, and simultaneously applying a radio frequency (RF) bias voltage to the substrate support structure, whereby the portion of the surface carrying the patterned mask that is not covered by the patterned mask is etched by the plasma comprising the generated silicon-containing species so as to form one or more etched features in the indium-based semiconductor material.

In one exemplary embodiment, a substrate processing method is provided. This substrate processing method comprises the steps of: providing a substrate including a metal compound film and a mask defining an opening on the metal compound film to a plasma processing chamber; and etching the metal compound film by forming a plasma from a first processing gas including a boron- and halogen-containing gas and a hydrogen-containing gas.

A method of etching an underlying layer includes performing a pretreatment step, a reaction step, and an etch step. The pretreatment step includes exposing surfaces of a patterned carbon-containing layer to oxygen to form CO bonds at the surfaces with or without using plasma. The reaction step includes exposing the CO bonds to an oxygen-reactive precursor to selectively form a mask protection layer on the surfaces of the patterned carbon-containing layer. The etch step is performed after the pretreatment step, and includes flowing an etchant gas and exciting plasma from the etchant gas to etch the underlying layer using the patterned carbon-containing layer as an etch mask. Any of the pretreatment step, the reaction step, and the etch step may be performed consecutively, concurrently, or repeated as a cycle.

A plasma processing apparatus is disclosed. The apparatus includes a processing chamber; a workpiece support disposed in the processing chamber configured to support a workpiece during processing; a hollow cathode disposed in the processing chamber configured to produce a plasma in the processing chamber; a gas distribution system configured to provide process gas to the processing chamber; and a shield disposed in the processing chamber. The hollow cathode is disposed adjacent to a perimeter of the workpiece support and the workpiece. The shield is configured to be adjusted with respect to an X-Y plane. Systems and methods for processing workpieces are also disclosed.

A method for etching a silicon oxide film at a high selection ratio with respect to a silicon nitride film while a high etching rate of the silicon oxide film is balanced with a low etching rate of the silicon nitride film. The etching processing method is a dry etching processing method for etching a film without using plasma by supplying gas into a process chamber, the film having a side wall of a groove or a hole constituted by respective end parts of laminated film layers formed on a wafer, the laminated film layers including silicon oxide films each sandwiched between silicon nitride films, and in which the silicon oxide films are etched laterally from the end parts with the wafer being set to a low temperature equal to or less than (0.040x42.0 C.) when a partial pressure of hydrogen fluoride gas is taken as x (Pa).

A method for selectively etching a silicon nitride film can include supplying a hydrogen fluoride gas to an etching subject while heating the etching subject so that a temperature of the etching subject is maintained at a predetermined temperature included in a range of a first temperature to a second temperature, inclusive. The method can include supplying active radicals generated from a radical generation gas to the etching subject while heating the etching subject so that the temperature of the etching subject after being supplied with the hydrogen fluoride gas is maintained at the predetermined temperature.

The disclosed etching method includes: (a) providing a substrate that includes a first layer and a second layer having a pattern on the first layer, (b) forming a silicon containing layer on a surface of the second layer in preference to a surface of the first layer, (c) forming a metal containing layer on a surface of the silicon containing layer, and (d) etching the exposed first layer using the second layer, the silicon containing layer, and the metal containing layer as a mask.

The present invention relates to a method for producing low reflectivity substrates. Using block copolymer patterning and inductively coupled plasma etching, near-periodic dense nanopatterned structures are formed on one or more surfaces of substrates comprising of material such as glass, sapphire, silicon, silicon carbide, gallium nitride etc. The nanopatterned structures create a gradual change of refractive index thus reducing reflection compared to that of an un-patterned substrate. The nanopatterned structures reduces reflectivity to less than 0.5% for a double side patterned substrate almost an order of magnitude smaller than flat glass with a bandwidth of 300 nm. For samples patterned on both surfaces, total transmission greater than 99.5% was demonstrated. This was achieved by introducing and optimising an oxygen plasma step before etch, and optimising values of etch parameters such as reactive ion etching power, inductively coupled plasma power, and etch gas molar flow rate and composition.

A method for performing an etch process on a substrate in a plasma processing system, including: applying source RF power and bias RF power to an electrode; wherein the source RF power and the bias RF power are pulsed signals that together define a plurality of multi-state pulsed RF cycles, each cycle having a first state, second state, and third state; wherein the first state is defined by the source RF power having a first source RF power level and the bias RF power having a first bias RF power level; wherein the second state is defined by the source RF power and the bias RF power having substantially zero power levels; wherein the third state is defined by the source RF power having a second source RF power level less than the first source RF power level, and the bias RF power having a substantially zero power level.

A disclosed substrate processing method includes providing a substrate on a substrate support in a chamber. The substrate has a metal-containing film including an exposed first region and an unexposed second region. The substrate processing method further includes exposing the substrate to BCl.sub.3 gas and HBr gas to selectively remove the second region with respect to the first region to form a recess in the metal-containing film.