Hydrogen Plasma Characteristics for Photoresist Stripping Process in a Cylindrical Inductively Coupled Plasma

As the feature size of integrated circuits continues to decrease, the challenge of achieving an oxidation-free exposed layer after photoresist (PR) stripping is becoming a critical issue for semiconductor device fabrication. In this article, the hydrogen plasma characteristics in direct plasma and the PR stripping rate in remote plasma were studied using a $120{\Phi}$ cylindrical inductively coupled plasma source. E mode, H mode and E-H mode transitions were observed, which were defined by matching the $V_{rms}$ and total impedance. In addition, the dependence of the E-H mode transition on pressure was examined and the corresponding plasma instability regions were identified. The plasma density and electron temperature increased gradually under the same process conditions. In contrast, the PR stripping rate decreased with increasing proportion of $H_2$ gas in mixed $H_2/N_2$ plasma. The decrease in concentration of reactive radicals for the removal of PR with increasing $H_2$ gas flow rate suggests that NH radicals have a dominant effect as the main volatile product.