Decrease of Global Warming Effect During Dry Etching of Silicon Nitride Layer Using C3F6O/O2 Chemistries

Recently, the discharge of global warming gases in dry etching process of TFT-LCD display industry is a serious issue because perfluorocarbon compound (PFC) gas causes global warming effects. PFCs including CF4, C2F6, C3F8, CHF3, NF3 and SF6 are widely used as etching and cleaning gases. In particular, the SF6 gas is chemically stable compounds. However, these gases have large global warming potential (GWP100 = 24,900) and lifetime (3,200). In this work, we chose C3F6O gas which has a very low GWP (GWP100 = <100) and lifetime (< 1) as a replacement gas. This study investigated the effects of the gas flow ratio of C3F6O/O2 and process pressure in dual-frequency capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) etcher on global warming effects. Also, we compared global warming effects of C3F6O gas with those of SF6 gas during dry etching of a patterned positive type photo-resist/silicon nitride/glass substrate. The etch rate measurements and emission of by-products were analyzed by scanning electron Microscopy (SEM; HITACI, S-3500H) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR; MIDAC, I2000), respectively. Calculation of MMTCE (million metric ton carbon equivalents) based on the emitted by-products were performed during etching by controlling various process parameters. The evaluation procedure and results will be discussed in detail.