• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.90-94
• /
• 2015

In this study, the characterizations of oxide contact hole etching are investigated with C₄F₈/O₂/Ar and CH₂F₂/C₄F₈/O₂/ Ar plasma. As the percent composition of C₄F₈ in a C₄F₈/O₂/Ar mixture increases, the amount of polymer deposited on the etched surface also increases because the C_xF_y polymer layer retards the reaction of oxygen atoms with PR. Adding CH₂F₂ into the C₄F₈/O₂/Ar plasma increases the etch rate of the oxide and the selectivity of oxide to PR. The profile of contact holes was close to 90°, and no visible residue was seen in the SEM image at a C₄F₈/(C₄F₈+O₂) ratio of 58%. The changes of chemical composition in the chamber were analyzed using optical emission spectroscopy, and the chemical reaction on the etched surface was investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2016.02a
• /
• pp.210.2-210.2
• /
• 2016

An inductively coupled plasma source was prepared for the deposition of a-C:H thin film. Properties of the inductively coupled plasma source are investigated by fluid simulation including Navier-Stokes equations and home-made tuned single Langmuir probe. Signal attenuation ratios of the Langmuir probe harmonic frequency were 13.56Mhz and 27.12Mhz. Dependencies of plasma parameters on process parameters were accord with simulation results. Ar/CH4 plasma simulation results shown that hydrocarbon radical densities have their lowest value at the vicinity of gas feeding line due to high flow velocity. For input power density of 0.07W/cm3, CH radical density qualitatively follows electron density distribution. On the other hand, central region of the chamber become deficient in CH3 radical due to high dissociation rate accompanied with high electron density. The result suggest that optimization of discharge power is important for controlling deposition film quality in high density plasma sources.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2008.11a
• /
• pp.102-102
• /
• 2008

Sapphire (${\alpha}-Al_2O_3$) has been used as the substrate of opto-electronic device because of characteristics of thermal stability, comparatively low cost, large diameter, optical transparency and chemical compatibility. However, there is difficulty in the etching and patterning due to the physical stability of sapphire and the selectivity with sapphire and mask materials [1,2]. Therefore, sapphire has been studied on the various fields and need to be studied, continuously. In this study, the etching properties of sapphire substrate were investigated with various $CH_4$/Ar gas combination, radio frequency (RF) power, DC-bias voltage and process pressure. The characteristics of the plasma were estimated for mechanism using optical emission spectroscopy (OES). The chemical compounds on the surface of sapphire substrate were investigated using energy dispersive X-ray (EDX). The chemical reaction on the surface of the etched sapphire substrate was observed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to investigate the vertical and slope profiles.

• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.34-41
• /
• 2017

A 2.45 GHz microwave plasma with linear antenna has been prepared for hydrophobic and wear-resistible surface coating of carbon steel. Wear-resistible properties are required for the surface protection of cutting tools and achieved by depositing a hydrogenated amorphous carbon film on steel surface through linear microwave plasma source that has $TE_{10}-TEM$ waveguide. Compared to the existing RF plasma source driven by 13.56 MHz, linear microwave plasma source can easily generate high density plasma and provide faster deposition rate and wider process windows. In this study, $Ar/CH_4$ gas mixtures are used for hydrogenated amorphous carbon film deposition. When microwave power of 1000 W is applied, 40 cm long uniform $Ar/CH_4$ plasma could be obtained in gas pressure of 200~400 mTorr. The Vickers hardness measurement of hydrogenated amorphous carbon film on steel surface was evaluated. It was found the optimized deposition condition at $Ar:CH_4=25:25$ sccm, 300 mTorr with microwave power of 1000W and RF bias power of 100W. By deposition of hydrogenated amorphous carbon film, contact angle on steel surfaces increases from $43.9^{\circ}$ to $93.2^{\circ}$.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
• /
• v.8 no.6
• /
• pp.229-233
• /
• 2007

In this study, we carried out an investigation of the etching characteristics(etch rate, selectivity) of $HfO_2$ thin films in the $CH_4/Ar$ inductively coupled plasma. It was found that variations of input power and negative dc-bias voltage are investigated by the monotonic changes of the $HfO_2$ etch rate as it generally expected from the corresponding variations of plasma parameters. At the same time, a change in either gas pressure or in gas mixing ratio result in non-monotonic etch rate that reaches a maximum at 2 Pa and for $CH_4(20%)/Ar(80%)$ gas mixture, respectively. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis showed an efficient destruction of the oxide bonds by the ion bombardment as well as showed an accumulation of low volatile reaction products on the etched surface. Based on these data, the ion-assisted chemical reaction was proposed as the main etch mechanism for the $CH_4-containing$ plasmas.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2011.02a
• /
• pp.284-284
• /
• 2011

Recently, the increasing degree of device integration in the fabrication of Si semiconductor devices, etching processes of nano-scale materials and high aspect-ratio (HAR) structures become more important. Due to this reason, etch selectivity control during etching of HAR contact holes and trenches is very important. In this study, The etch selectivity and etch rate of TEOS oxide layer using ACL (amorphous carbon layer) mask are investigated various process parameters in CH2F2/C4F8/O2/Ar plasma during etching TEOS oxide layer using ArF/BARC/SiOx/ACL multilevel resist (MLR) structures. The deformation and etch characteristics of TEOS oxide layer using ACL hard mask was investigated in a dual-frequency superimposed capacitively coupled plasma (DFS-CCP) etcher by different fHF/ fLF combinations by varying the CH2F2/ C4F8 gas flow ratio plasmas. The etch characteristics were measured by on scanning electron microscopy (SEM) And X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). A process window for very high selective etching of TEOS oxide using ACL mask could be determined by controlling the process parameters and in turn degree of polymerization. Mechanisms for high etch selectivity will discussed in detail.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.31-36
• /
• 2001

Teflon-like fluorocarbon thin film was deposited by using difluoromethane$(CH_2F_2$) added with Ar, $O_2$, and $CH_4$ on Si, $SiO_2$, TEOS, and Al substrate. The deposited thin film was characterized by static contact angles for measuring hydrophobicity in various additive gas ratio. temperature, and working pressure. In case of addition with Ar, the static contact angles decreased as additive gas ratio and power increased. But the static contact angles increased as working pressure increased. Specially, super-hydrophobic surface was obtained using the powder-like fluorocarbon thin film above 2 Torr. Added with $O_2$, the static contact angles decreased as the $O_2$ ratio and working pressure increased. And the static contact angles did not change in 100W, but hydrophilic surface was obtained at 200W. In case of addition of CE$_4$, static contact angles dramatically increased in $CH_4/CH_2F_2$ ratio 5. And continuous static contact angles obtained above ratio 5. As compare with previous experiments by thermal evaporation, the fluorocarbon thin film by plasma polymerization was obtained very low hysteresis. This results shows more homogenous surface by plasma polymerization than thermal evaporation process.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
• /
• v.8 no.4B
• /
• pp.565-571
• /
• 1999

In this study, high-density plasma etching characteristics of ITO(indium tin oxide) films used for transparent electrode in dispaly devices were investigated. Plasma diagnostic and surface analysis tools were used to understand etch reaction mechanism. The etch rate of ITO was increased by the increase of reactive radicals such as H and $CH_3$ with the addition of moderate amount of $CH_4$ to Ar. However, the addition of excess amount of $CH_4$ decreased possibly due to the increased polymer formation on the ITO surface being etched. The increase of source power and bias boltage increased ITO etch rates but it decreased selectivities over under-layers $(SiO_2, Si_3N_4)$. The increase of working pressure up to 20mTorr also increased ITO etch rates, however the further increased of the pressure decreased ITO etch rates. From the analysis of XPS, a peak related to the polymer of hydrocarbon was observed on the etched ITO surface especially for high $CH_4$ conditions and it appears to affect ITO etch rates.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2011.02a
• /
• pp.77-77
• /
• 2011

These days, a growing demand for memory device is filled up with the flash memory and the dynamic random access memory (DRAM). Although DRAM is a reasonable solution for current demand, the universal novel memory with high density, high speed and nonvolatility, needs to be developed. Among various new memories, the magnetic random access memory (MRAM) device is considered as one of good candidate memories because of excellent features including high density, high speed, low operating power and nonvolatility. The etching of MTJ stack which is composed of magnetic materials and insulator such as MgO is one of the vital process for MRAM. Recently, MgO has attracted great interest in the MTJ stack as tunneling barrier layer for its high tunneling magnetoresistance values. For the successful realization of high density MRAM, the etching process of MgO thin films should be investigated. Until now, there were some works devoted to the investigations on etch characteristics of MgO thin films. Initially, ion milling was applied to the etching of MgO thin films. However, ion milling has many disadvantages such as sidewall redeposition and etching damage. High density plasma etching containing the magnetically enhanced reactive ion etching and high density reactive ion etching have been employed for the improvement of etching process. In this work, inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching (ICPRIE) system was adopted for the improvement of etching process using MgO thin films and etching gas mixes of $CH_4$/Ar and $CH_4$/$O_2$/Ar have been employed. The etch rates are measured by a surface profilometer and etch profiles are observed using field emission scanning emission microscopy (FESEM). The effects of gas concentration and etch parameters such as coil rf power, dc-bias voltage to substrate, and gas pressure on etch characteristics will be systematically explored.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
• /
• 2009.05a
• /
• pp.266-267
• /
• 2009

본 논문에서는 As-doped ZnO 박막의 플라즈마 식각 특성 및 메커니즘에 관하여 실험을 수행하였다. p-type과 n-type ZnO 박막의 실험은 유도 결합 플라즈마 식각 장비(inductively coupled plasma; ICP)를 이용하였고, $CH_4/Ar$ 플라즈마의 가스의 비, RF 전력, DC 바이어스 전압과 공정 압력에 대한 식각 속도의 변화를 관찰 하였다.