Abstract: Stress corrosion induced voiding of patterned metal layers is avoided or substantially reduced by removing etching residues before gap filling. Embodiments include etching an Al or Al alloy layer employing fluorine and/or chlorine chemistry, wet cleaning, treating with a nitrogen-containing plasma at a temperature of at least about 400° C. and gap filling with a dielectric material, e.g. HDP oxide by HDP CVD.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method for providing an interconnect in a flash memory device. A first embodiment includes forming at least one contact hole in a peripheral area of the device; bombarding a bottom of the at least one contact hole with ions, where the ions break down undesired oxide residing at the bottom of the at least one contact hole; depositing a barrier metal layer into the at least one contact hole, where the barrier metal layer breaks down remaining undesired oxide at the bottom of the at least one contact hole, and where bombarding with the ions and the depositing of the barrier metal layer minimize an undesired widening of the at least one contact hole; and depositing a contact material into the at least one contact hole. With the first embodiment, both the ions and the titanium break down the undesired oxide while neither breaks down the desired oxide at the sides of the contact hole to a significant degree.

Abstract: Stress corrosion induced voiding of patterned metal layers is avoided or substantially reduced by removing etching residues before gap filling. Embodiments include etching an Al or Al alloy layer employing fluorine and/or chlorine chemistry, wet cleaning, treating with a plasma containing ammonia or ammonia and oxygen at a temperature of at least about 400° C. and gap filling with a dielectric material, e.g. HDP oxide by HDP CVD.

Abstract: The inventive method allows for a more complete stripping of photoresist and sidewall polymer in the production of semiconductor devices using a four step process in a plasma stripper. The first step uses CF.sub.4, O.sub.2, and H.sub.2 O as etchant gases in a downstream quartz (DSQ) chamber at a low pressure, which are ionized by radio waves for a period of between 5 and 20 seconds. The second step discontinues the radio waves, while continuing the flow of etchant gases and heating the semiconductor. The third step only provides H.sub.2 O vapor to the DSQ chamber. The fourth step provides both O.sub.2 and H.sub.2 O as etchant gases ionized by radio waves to remove the remaining resist.

Abstract: An apparatus and method a method for performing two-pass real time video compression is provided. Tactical decisions such as encoding and quantization values are determined in software, whereas functional execution steps are performed in hardware. By appropriately apportioning the tasks between software and hardware, the benefits of each type of processing are exploited, while minimizing both hardware complexity and data transfer requirements. One key concept that allows the compression unit to operate in real time is that the architecture and pipelining both allow for B frames to be executed out of order. By buffering B frames, two-pass motion estimation techniques can be performed to tailor bit usage to the requirements of the frame, and thereby provide a more appealing output image.