• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.189-193
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• 2008

In this study, we carried out an investigation of the etching characteristics (etch rate, selectivity to $SiO_2$ and $HfO_2$) of TiN thin films in the $CH_4$/Ar inductively coupled plasma. The maximum etch rate of $274\;{\AA}/min$ for TiN thin films was obtained at $CH_4$(80%)/Ar(20%) gas mixing ratio. At the same time, the etch rate was measured as function of the etching parameters such as RF power, Bias power, and process pressure. 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
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.210.2-210.2
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• 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 Surface Engineering Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.59-59
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• 1999

In this study, planer inductively coupled $Cl_2$ based plasmas were used to etch InGaN and the effects of plasma conditions on the InGaN etch properties have been characterized using quadrupole mass spectrometry(QMS) and optical emission spectroscopy(OES). As process conditions used to study the effects of plasma characteristics on the InGaN etch properties, $Cl_2$ was used as the main etch gas and $CHF_3,{\;}CH_4$, and Ar were used as additive gases. Operational pressure was varied from SmTorr to 3OmTorr, inductive power and bias voltage were varied from 400W to 800W and -50V to -250V, respectively while the substrate temperature was fixed at 50 centigrade. For the $Cl_2$ plasmas, selective etching of GaN to InGaN was obtained regardless of plasma conditions. The small addition of $CHF_3$ or Ar to $Cl_2$ and the decrease of pressure generally increased InGaN etch rates. The selective etching of InGaN to GaN could be obtained by the reduction of pressure to l5mTorr in $CI_2/IO%CHF_3{\;}or{\;}CI_2/IO%Ar$ plasma. The enhancement of InGaN etch rates was related to the ion bombardment for $CI_2/Ar$ plasmas and the formation of $CH_x$ radicals for $CI_2/CHF_3(CH_4)$ plasmas.

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

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.210-210
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• 2011

The effects of CH2F2 and N2 gas flow rates on the etch selectivity of silicon nitride (Si3N4) layers to extreme ultra-violet (EUV) resist and the variation of the line edge roughness (LER) of the EUV resist and Si3N4 pattern were investigated during etching of a Si3N4/EUV resist structure in dual-frequency superimposed CH2F2/N2/Ar capacitive coupled plasmas (DFS-CCP). The flow rates of CH2F2 and N2 gases played a critical role in determining the process window for ultra-high etch selectivity of Si3N4/EUV resist due to disproportionate changes in the degree of polymerization on the Si3N4 and EUV resist surfaces. Increasing the CH2F2 flow rate resulted in a smaller steady state CHxFy thickness on the Si3N4 and, in turn, enhanced the Si3N4 etch rate due to enhanced SiF4 formation, while a CHxFy layer was deposited on the EUV resist surface protecting the resist under certain N2 flow conditions. The LER values of the etched resist tended to increase at higher CH2F2 flow rates compared to the lower CH2F2 flow rates that resulted from the increased degree of polymerization.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics A
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• v.32A no.1
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• pp.152-158
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• 1995

Eteching characteristics of the Indium Tin Oxide (ITO), which is transparent conductor, was investigated with CH4/H2 and Ar as etching gases for the Reactive Ion Etching (RIE). With CH4/H2 for the etching gas, the highly selective etching characteristics for the ITO on GaAs was obtained. It was examined that the dominant etching parameter for the selective etchning of ITO on GaAs structure was the chamber pressure. But, the etching selectivity for ITO on InP was poor eventhough we tried systematic etching. RIE etching conditins using CH4/H2 gas was limited due to the formation of polymer on the substrates. In the case of Ar gas for the reactive gas, the selectivity of ITO on BaTiO3 was above 10. The etch rete of ITO was more sensitive to the etching parameters than that of BaTiO3, which was almost constant with different etching parameters.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.169-169
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• 2011

STT-MRAM (수직자화 자기메모리)는 자화반전 현상을 원리로 구동하는 비휘발성 메모리로 기존의 메모리 장치에 비해 빠른 접근 속도와 높은 저장 밀도를 가지며 영구적인 기록이 가능하다. 이러한 장점들에 더해 적은 소모 전력을 지니므로 기존의 SRAM등의 한계를 극복할 대안으로 각광받고 있으며 차세대 메모리 군의 선두주자로 가장 적합한 후보중 하나이다. STT-MRAM의 건식 식각 방식에 있어 가장 큰 이슈는 소자 구동에 핵심적인 역할을 하는 MTJ(Magnetic Tunnel Junction)의 식각이다. MTJ는 free layer, tunnel barrier, pinned layer 3개의 층으로 구성되어 있으며 양 끝 layer에는 강자성체인 CoFeB가 사용되고 tunnel barrier에는 절연층인 MgO가 사용되고 있다. 이러한 물질들은 기존의 반도체 소자에서는 사용되지 않았던 물질들로 기존 공정에서 사용되던 Cl2 based plasma etching에서는 측벽에 비화발성 반응물과 잔류 Cl2에 의해 부식이 발생하는 문제점이 드러나고 있다. 이러한 문제점을 해결하기 위한 새로운 대안으로 CO/NH3/Ar나 CH4/Ar 같은 새로운 가스 조합을 사용하는 연구가 진행되고 있다. 이러한 연구에 의해 기존의 Cl2 plasma를 이용한 식각에서 나타나는 문제점은 해결이 되었으나 또 다른 문제점들이 보고되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 stack MRAM sample을 사용하여 기존의 사용되는 Cl2/Ar plasma와 대안 gas인 CO/NH3, CH4/Ar plasma에서의 식각을 진행하였으며 실험 조건(gas 비율 변화, Bias power 변화, 식각 시간)에 따른 식각 속도의 변화나 식각 후의 profile에 대하여 관찰하였다. 이에 따라 식각후에 어떠한 차이점이 있는 지를 알아보았으며 CO/NH3나 CH4/Ar plasma에서 식각시 나타나는 문제점에 대하여도 조명해 보았다.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.377-382
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• 1998

Atomic layer deposition(ALD) of amorphous TiN films on $SiO_2$ between 17$0^{\circ}C$ and 21O$^{\circ}C$ has been investigated by alternate supply of reactant sources, Ti[N($C_2,H_5,CH_3)_2]_4$ [tetrakis(ethylmethylamminoltitanium: TEMAT] and $NH_3$. Reactant sources were injected into the reactor in the order of TEMAT vapor pulse, Ar gas pulse, $NH_3$. gas pulse and Ar gas pulse. Film thickness per cycle was saturated at around 1.6 monolayer(MU per cycle with sufficient pulse times of reactant sources at 20$0^{\circ}C$. The results suggest that film thickness per cycle could be beyond 1 MLicycie in ALD, which were explained by rechemisorption mechanisms of reactant sources. The ideal linear relationship be¬tween number of cycles and film thickness is confirmed. As a results of surface limited reactions of ALD, step cover¬age was excellent. Particles caused by the gas phase reactions between TEMAT and NH3 were almost free because TEMAT was seperated from $NH_3$ by the Ar pulse. In spite of relatively low substrate temperature, carbon impurity was incorporated below 4 at%.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.458-458
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• 2010

The process window for the etch selectivity of silicon nitride ($Si_3N_4$) layers to extreme ultra-violet (EUV) resist and variation of line edge roughness (LER) of EUV resist were investigated durin getching of $Si_3N_4$/EUV resist structure in a dual-frequency superimposed capacitive coupled plasma (DFS-CCP) etcher by varying the process parameters, such as the $CH_2F_2$ and $N_2$ gas flow rate in $CH_2F_2/N_2$/Ar plasma. The $CH_2F_2$ and $N_2$ flow rate was found to play a critical role in determining the process window for infinite etch selectivity of $Si_3N_4$/EUV resist, due to disproportionate changes in the degree of polymerization on $Si_3N_4$ and EUV resist surfaces. The preferential chemical reaction between hydrogen and carbon in the hydrofluorocarbon ($CH_xF_y$) polymer layer and the nitrogen and oxygen on the $Si_3N_4$, presumably leading to the formation of HCN, CO, and $CO_2$ etch by-products, results in a smaller steady-state hydrofluorocarbon thickness on $Si_3N_4$ and, in turn, in continuous $Si_3N_4$ etching due to enhanced $SiF_4$ formation, while the $CH_xF_y$ layer is deposited on the EUV resist surface. Also critical dimension (and line edge roughness) tend to decrease with increasing $N_2$ flow rate due to decreased degree of polymerization.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.1515-1518
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• 2009

Hydrophobic treatments were conducted for different kinds of substrates, glass substrate, silicon wafer and plastic substrate. Ar-$CH_4$ gas mixture was used as a discharge gas for the hydrophobic treatment. The change of the contact angle before and after treatment was measured and compared. Time evolution of the contact angle change after hydrophobic treatment was investigated.