HIGH PRODUCTIVITY COMBINATORIAL TECHNIQUES FOR TITANIUM NITRIDE ETCHING

摘要

Provided are methods of High Productivity Combinatorial testing of semiconductor substrates, each including multiple site isolated regions. Each site isolated region includes a titanium nitride structure as well as a hafnium oxide structure and/or a polysilicon structure. Each site isolated region is exposed to an etching solution that includes sulfuric acid, hydrogen peroxide, and hydrogen fluoride. The composition of the etching solution and/or etching conditions are varied among the site isolated regions to study effects of this variation on the etching selectivity of titanium nitride relative to hafnium oxide and/or polysilicon and on the etching rates. The concentration of sulfuric acid and/or hydrogen peroxide in the etching solution may be less than 7 % by volume each, while the concentration of hydrogen fluoride may be between 50 ppm and 200 ppm. In some embodiments, the temperature of the etching solution is maintained at between about 40C and 60C.