A continuous or cyclic etching method for etching a metal carbide over a metal nitride is disclosed. The etching method includes the following steps: supplying plasma that is generated from a gas mixture that contains N.sub.2 and H.sub.2 and does not contain halogen gases including fluorine, chlorine, bromine, and iodine to a surface of metal carbide on at least a part of the surface, to modify the surface of metal carbide, and removing the modified surface on metal carbide by ion irradiation or by heating.

Methods and apparatus for depositing a metal containing-layer in a semiconductor processing chamber. One example method generally includes delivering a processing gas into the semiconductor processing chamber during a time period, where the processing gas comprises a first precursor delivered at a first rate and etchants delivered at a second rate, sustaining a plasma formed from the first precursor present in the semiconductor processing chamber during at least a first portion of the time period, and depositing the metal containing-layer on at least a portion of a semiconductor structure during the time period until an endpoint thickness is reached. Delivering the processing gas into the semiconductor processing chamber generally includes delivering the first precursor and the etchants during the time period or delivering the first precursor during a first part of the time period and delivering the etchants during a second part of the time period.

A metal removal method which includes: a reaction step of bringing a treatment gas containing a fluorine-containing interhalogen compound and a metal-containing material containing a metal element into contact with each other to generate metal fluoride which is a reaction product of the fluorine-containing interhalogen compound and the metal element; and a volatilization step of heating the metal fluoride under an inert gas atmosphere or in a vacuum environment for volatilization. The metal element is at least one kind selected from iron, cobalt, nickel, selenium, molybdenum, rhodium, palladium, tungsten, rhenium, iridium, and platinum. Also disclosed is a dry etching method using the metal removal method and a production method for a semiconductor element using the dry etching method.

A substrate processing method processes a substrate having a metal layer and a hard mask that is laminated on the metal layer on a surface. This method includes a step of dry etching and patterning the metal layer exposed from the hard mask, a step of irradiating an ultraviolet ray to a residue generated on the surface of the substrate by the dry etching, and a step of removing the residue from the substrate by wet processing in which a residue removing liquid having a pH (hydrogen ion exponent) of not less than 7 and not more than 14 is supplied to the surface of the substrate after irradiation of the ultraviolet ray. The residue contains one or more types of metal oxide, metallic halide, and an organic metallic substance each of which contains an element of a main constituent metal of the metal layer.

Memory devices and methods of forming memory devices are described. The memory devices comprise a silicon nitride hard mask layer on a ruthenium layer. Forming the silicon nitride hard mask layer on the ruthenium comprises pre-treating the ruthenium layer with a plasma to form an interface layer on the ruthenium layer; and forming a silicon nitride layer on the interface layer by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). Pre-treating the ruthenium layer, in some embodiments, results in the interface layer having a reduced roughness and the memory device having a reduced resistivity compared to a memory device that does not include the interface layer.

Molybdenum is etched in a highly controllable manner by performing one or more etch cycles, where each cycle involves exposing the substrate having a molybdenum layer to an oxygen-containing reactant to form molybdenum oxide followed by treatment with boron trichloride to convert molybdenum oxide to a volatile molybdenum oxychloride with subsequent treatment of the substrate with a fluorine-containing reactant to remove boron oxide that has formed in a previous reaction, from the surface of the substrate. In some embodiments the method is performed in an absence of plasma and results in a substantially isotropic etching. The method can be used in a variety of applications in semiconductor processing, such as in wordline isolation in 3D NAND fabrication.

Disclosed are apparatuses and methods for performing atomic layer etching. A method may include supporting and thermally floating a substrate in a processing chamber, modifying one or more surface layers of material on the substrate by chemical adsorption, without using a plasma, while the substrate is maintained at a first temperature, and removing the one or more modified surface layers by desorption, without using a plasma, while the substrate is maintained at a second temperature, the first temperature being different than the second temperature. An apparatus may include a processing chamber and support features configured to support and thermally float a substrate in the chamber, a process gas unit configured to flow a first process gas onto the substrate, a substrate heating unit configured to heat the substrate, and a substrate cooling unit configured to actively cool the substrate.