• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.460-460
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• 2012

반도체 Device가 Shrink 함에 따라 Pattern Size가 작아지게 되고, 이로 인해 Photo Resist 물질 자체만으로는 원하는 Patterning 물질들을 Plasma Etching 하기가 어려워지고 있다. 이로 인해 Photoresist를 대체할 Hard Mask 개념이 도입되었으며, 이 Hardmask Layer 중 Amorphous Carbon Layer 가 가장 널리 사용되고 지고 있다. 이 Amorphous Carbon 계열의 Hardmask를 Etching 하기 위해서 기본적으로 O2 Plasma가 사용되는데, 이 O2 Plasma 내의 Oxygen Species들이 가지는 등 방성 Diffusion 특성으로 인해, 원하고자 하는 미세 Pattern의 Vertical Profile을 얻는데 많은 어려움이 있어왔다. 이를 Control 하기 인해 O2 Plasma Parameter들의 변화 및 Source/Bias Power 등의 변수가 연구되어 왔으며, 이와 다른 접근으로, N2 및 CO, CO2, SO2 등의 여러 Additive Gas 들의 첨가를 통해 미세 Pattern의 Profile을 개선하고, Plasma Etching 특성을 개선하는 연구가 같이 진행되어져 왔다. 본 논문에서 VLSI Device의 Masking Layer로 사용되는, Carbon 계 유기 층의 Plasma 식각 특성에 대한 연구를 진행하였다. Plasma Etchant로 사용되는 O2 Plasma에 새로운 첨가제 가스인 카르보닐 황화물 (COS) Gas를 추가하였을 시 나타나는 Plasma 내의 변화를 Plasma Parameter 및 IR 및 XPS, OES 분석을 통하여 규명하고, 이로 인한 Etch Rate 및 Plasma Potential에 대해 비교 분석하였다. COS Gas를 정량적으로 추가할 시, Plasma의 변화 및 이로 인해 얻어지는 Pattern에서의 Etchant Species들의 변화를 통해 Profile의 변화를 Mechanism 적으로 규명할 수 있었으며, 이로 인해 기존의 O2 Plasma를 통해 얻어진 Vertical Profile 대비, COS Additive Gas를 추가하였을 경우, Pattern Profile 변화가 개선됨을 최종적으로 확인 할 수 있었다.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.1504-1507
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• 2009

In this paper, the etching behavior of ZnO in $CF_4$ plasma mixed Ar was investigated. Previously, the etch rate in $CF_4$/Ar plasma was reported that it is slower than that in Cl containing plasma. But, plasma included Cl atom can produce the by-product such as $ZnCl_2$. In order to solve this film contamination, no Cl containing etching gas is required. We controlled the etching parameter such as source power, substrate bias power, and $CF_4$/Ar gas ratio to acquire the fast etch rate using a ICP etcher. We accomplished the etching rate of 144.85 nm/min with the substrate bias power of 200W. As the energetic fluorine atoms were bonded with Zinc atoms, the fluoride zinc crystal ($ZnF_2$) was observed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.32.2-32.2
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• 2007

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

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.116-119
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• 2010

The etching characteristics of zinc oxide (ZnO) were investigated, including the etch rate and the selectivity of ZnO in a $Cl_2/BCl_3$/Ar plasma. It was found that the ZnO etch rate, the RF power, and the gas pressure showed non-monotonic behaviors with an increasing Cl2 fraction in the $Cl_2/BCl_3$/Ar plasma, a gas mixture of $Cl_2$(3 sccm)/$BCl_3$(16 sccm)/Ar (4 sccm) resulted in a maximum ZnO etch rate of 53 nm/min and a maximum etch selectivity of 0.89 for ZnO/$SiO_2$. We used atomic force microscopy to determine the roughness of the surface. Based on these data, the ion-assisted chemical reaction was proposed as the main etch mechanism for the plasmas. Due to the relatively low volatility of the by-products formed during etching with $Cl_2/BCl_3$/Ar plasma, ion bombardment and physical sputtering were required to obtain the high ZnO etch rate. The chemical states of the etched surfaces were investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). This data suggested that the ZnO etch mechanism was due to ion enhanced chemical etching.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1996.11b
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• pp.506-511
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• 1996

Research on the dry etching of UO$_2$ by using fluorine containing gas plasma is carried out for DUPIC (Direct Use of spent PWR fuel In CANDU) process which is taken into consideration for potential future fuel cycle in Korea. CF$_4$/O$_2$ gas mixture is chosen for the reactant gas and the etching rates of UO$_2$ by the gas plasma are investigated as functions of substrate temperature, plasma gas pressure, CF$_4$/O$_2$ ratio, and plasma power, It is tentatively found that the etching rate can reach 1000 monolayers/min. and the optimum CF$_4$/O$_2$ ratio is around 4:1.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.68-72
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• 2009

This study investigated dry etching of acrylic in capacitively coupled $SF_6$, $SF_6/O_2$ and $SF_6/CH_4$ plasma under a low vacuum pressure. The process pressure was 100 mTorr and the total gas flow rate was fixed at 10 sccm. The process variables were the RIE chuck power and the plasma gas composition. The RIE chuck power varied in the range of $25{\sim}150\;W$. $SF_6/O_2$ plasma produced higher etch rates of acrylic than pure $SF_6$ and $O_2$ at a fixed total flow rate. 5 sccm $SF_6$/5 sccm $O_2$ provided $0.11{\mu}m$/min and $1.16{\mu}m$/min at 25W and 150W RIE of chuck power, respectively. The results were nearly 2.9 times higher compared to those at pure $SF_6$ plasma etching. Additionally, mixed plasma of $SF_6/CH_4$ reduced the etch rate of acrylic. 5 sccm $SF_6$/5 sccm $CH_4$ plasma resulted in $0.02{\mu}m$/min and $0.07{\mu}m$/min at 25W and 150W RIE of chuck power. The etch selectivity of acrylic to photoresist was higher in $SF_6/O_2$ plasma than in pure $SF_6$ or $SF_6/CH_4$ plasma. The maximum RMS roughness (7.6 nm) of an etched acrylic surface was found to be 50% $O_2$ in $SF_6/O_2$ plasma. Besides the process regime, the RMS roughness of acrylic was approximately $3{\sim}4\;nm$ at different percentages of $O_2$ with a chuck power of 100W RIE in $SF_6/O_2$ plasma etching.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.111-117
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• 2008

We have studied surface roughness, contamination of impurity, bonding with some gas element, reflectance and zeta potential on masks to be generated or changed during photolithography/dry or wet etching process. Mask surface roughness was not changed after photolithography/dry etching process. But surface roughness was changed on some area under MoSi film of Cr/MoSi/Qz. There was not detected any impurity on mask surface after plasma dry etching process. Reflectance of mask was increased after variable plasma etching treatment, especially when mask was treated with plasma including $O_2$ gas. Blank mask was positively charged when the mask was treated with Cr plasma etching gas($Cl_2:250$ sccm/He:20 $sccm/O_2:29$ seem, source power:100 W/bias power:20 W, 300 sec). But this positive charge was changed to negative charge when the mask was treated with $CF_4$ gas for MoSi plasma etching, resulting better wet cleaning. There was appeared with negative charge on MoSi/Qz mask treated with Cr plasma etching process condition, and this mask was measured with more negative after SC-1 wet cleaning process, resulting better wet cleaning. This mask was charged with positive after treatment with $O_2$ plasma again, resulting bad wet cleaning condition.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.188-189
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• 2007

The etching characteristics of $Al_2O_3$ films using the inductively coupled plasma (ICP) was investigated. The etch gas was the mixture of $BCl_3$ and He. The effect of ICP source and bias powers on etch rate and etch selectivity to polycrystalline Si was investigated in the etch process of $Al_2O_3$. The etch rate of $Al_2O_3$ film was 23nm/min when the source power and bias power were 600W and 60W, respectively. The results also indicated that the etch selectivity to polycrystalline Si could not be enhanced to be higher than 1.0 by changing the ICP source power and bias power, under the experimental conditions used in the present work. Based on plasma parameters extracted from Langmuir probe data, the etching mechanism of $Al_2O_3$ film was discussed in detail.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.1-5
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• 2009

This investigation is applied Taguchi method and the analysis of variance(ANOVA) to the reactive ion etching(RIE) characteristics of $SiO_2$ film coated on a wafer with Experimental Analysis and Optimization of $CF_4/O_2$ Plasma Etching Process mixture. Plans of experiments via nine experimental runs are based on the orthogonal arrays. A $L_9$ orthogonal array was selected with factors and three levels. The three factors included etching time, RF power, gas mixture ratio. The etching rate of the film were measured as a function of those factors. In this study, the etching thickness mean and uniformity of thickness of the RIE are adopted as the quality targets of the RIE etching process. The partial factorial design of the Taguchi method provides an economical and systematic method for determining the applicable process parameters. The RIE are found to be the most significant factors in both the thickness mean and the uniformity of thickness for a RIE etching process.