Validation of High Efficiency ICP Source performance for advanced resist ashing

High Efficiency plasma Source (HES) was proposed before for use in a dry strip process [1]. Some extremely high ash rate significantly exceeding 10um/min from reference blanket photoresist wafer has been achieved. HES performance with different process chemistries, reliability of the source and repeatability of results was validated under many conditions, including extreme ones, such as cycling very long processes at high power (5kW). Repeatable process results with reliable hardware performance were obtained from the tool equipped with HES plasma source in a regular 300mm configuration. In this paper we report some of these results as well as some data from 450mm C&F process chamber.