Tapered Etching of Field Oxide with Various Angle using TEOS

Linearly graded profiles on the field area oxide are frequently used in power integrated circuits to reduce the surface electric field when power devices are operated in forward or reverse blocking modes. It is shown here that tapered windows can be made using the difference of etch rates between the bottom and the top layer of TEOS film. Annealed TEOS films are etched at a lower rate than the TEOS film without annealing Process. The fast etching layer results in window walls having slopes in the range of 25$^{\circ}$∼ 80$^{\circ}$ with respect to the wafer surface. Taper etching technique by annealing the TEOS film applies to high voltage LDMOS, which is compatible with CMOS process, due to the minimum changes in both of design rules and thermal budget.

다양한 기울기를 갖는 TEOS 필드 산화막의 경사식각