Thin film etching method and semiconductor device fabrication using same

1. A method for etching a thin film, the method comprising:

providing a substrate having a thin film layer thereon;

etching the thin film layer on the substrate, while monitoring the removal of an endpoint detection layer located remotely from the substrate; and

stopping the etching when a predetermined amount of the endpoint detection layer has been removed.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising forming an endpoint detection layer and correlating an etch rate of the endpoint detection layer to an etch rate of the thin film layer and depositing the endpoint detection layer on the surface of an etching chamber to a thickness determined by the etch rate correlation.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein monitoring the removal of the endpoint detection layer comprises monitoring by optical emission spectroscopy.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein forming an endpoint detection layer comprises forming a polymer layer.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein monitoring the removal of an endpoint detection layer comprises monitoring the removal of a polymer including fluorine.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing a substrate having a thin film layer thereon comprises providing a substrate having a dielectric layer thereon.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein providing a substrate comprises providing a silicon substrate.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein etching the thin film layer comprises forming sidewall spacers on a gate electrode.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein forming sidewall spacers on a gate electrode comprises forming silicon oxide spacers on a polycrystalline silicon gate electrode.

10. A method for etching a thin film, the method comprising:

providing a plasma etching apparatus having a process chamber equipped with an optical endpoint detection device;

forming an optical layer on at least a portion of the process chamber;

placing a device substrate having the thin film thereon in the process chamber and etching the thin film, while monitoring the optical layer with the endpoint detection device; and

terminating the etching upon command from the endpoint detection device.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein forming an optical layer comprises forming the optical layer during a chamber pre-conditioning process.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein terminating the etching upon command from the endpoint detection device comprises receiving an optical endpoint signal and terminating the etching upon detecting an abrupt change in the optical endpoint signal.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein forming an optical layer comprises forming a polymer layer.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein forming a polymer layer comprises forming a polymer including fluorine.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein etching the thin film comprises etching a dielectric layer on the device substrate.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein etching a dielectric layer comprises forming a sidewall spacer on a gate electrode.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein placing a device substrate in the process chamber comprises placing a silicon substrate in the process chamber, and wherein forming a sidewall spacer on a gate electrode comprises forming a silicon oxide spacer on a polycrystalline silicon gate electrode.

18. A method for fabricating a semiconductor device, the method comprising:

forming a gate electrode on a gate dielectric layer overlying a substrate;

forming a spacer material on the gate electrode; and

placing the substrate in an etching chamber and etching the spacer material using an etching process to form sidewall spacers on sidewalls of gate electrode,

wherein an endpoint of the etching process is determined by monitoring the removal of a material layer from a surface of the etching chamber.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein forming a gate electrode on a gate dielectric layer overlying a substrate comprises forming a silicon oxide layer overlying a silicon substrate, and wherein forming a spacer material on the gate electrode comprises forming a low temperature oxide material on a polycrystalline silicon gate electrode.

20. The method of claim 18 further comprising correlating an etch rate of the material layer to an etch rate of the spacer material and depositing the material layer on the surface of the etching chamber to have a thickness determined by an etch rate ratio of the material layer and the spacer material.

21. A method for controlling the etching a thin film having a predetermined thickness, the method comprising:

forming an endpoint detection layer on at least a portion of an inner surface of a plasma etching apparatus,

wherein a thickness of the endpoint detection layer is correlated with the predetermined thickness of the thin film;

etching the thin film and the endpoint detection layer in the plasma etching apparatus, while monitoring the endpoint detection layer; and

stopping the etching when a predetermined amount of the endpoint detection layer has been removed.

22. The method of claim 21 , wherein forming an endpoint detection layer comprises forming a polymer layer.

23. The method of claim 21 , wherein monitoring the endpoint detection layer comprises monitoring an optical reflection endpoint detection layer.

24. The method of claim 21 further comprising cleaning the inner surface of a plasma etching apparatus prior to forming an endpoint detection layer.