• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.27-31
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• 2021

VI probe, which is one of various in-situ plasma monitoring sensor, is frequently used for in-situ process monitoring in mass production environment. In this paper, we correlated the plasma etch results with VI probe data with the small amount of gas flow rate changes to propose usefulness of the VI probe in real-time process monitoring. Several different sized contact holes were employed for the etch experiment, and the etched profiles were measured by scanning electron microscope (SEM). Although the shape of etched hole did not show satisfactory relationship with VI probe data, the chamber status changed along the incremental/decremental modification of the amount of gas flow was successfully observed in terms of impedance monitoring.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.29-36
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• 2008

In this paper, mechanical reliability issues of copper through-wafer interconnections are investigated numerically and experimentally. A hermetic wafer level packaging for MEMS devices is developed. Au-Sn eutectic bonding technology is used to achieve hermetic sealing, and the vertical through-hole via filled with electroplated copper for the electrical connection is also used. The MEMS package has the size of $1mm{\times}1mm{\times}700{\mu}m$. The robustness of the package is confirmed by several reliability tests. Several factors which could induce via hole cracking failure are investigated such as thermal expansion mismatch, via etch profile, and copper diffusion phenomenon. Alternative electroplating process is suggested for preventing Cu diffusion and increasing the adhesion performance of the electroplating process. After implementing several improvements, reliability tests were performed, and via hole cracking as well as significant changes in the shear strength were not observed. Helium leak testing indicated that the leak rate of the package meets the requirements of MIL-STD-883F specification.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.99-101
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• 2000

The fabrication of the submicron size hole has been interesting due to the potential application of the near field optical sensor or liquid metal ion source. The 2 micron size dot array was photolithographically patterned. After formation of the V-groove shape by anisotropic KOH etching, dry oxidation at $1000^{\circ}C$ for 600 minutes was followed. In this procedure, the orientation dependent oxide growth was performed to have an etch-mask for dry etching. The reactive ion etching by the inductively coupled plasma (ICP) system was performed in order to etch ~90 nm $SiO_2$ layer at the bottom of the V-groove and to etch the Si at the bottom. The negative ion energy would enhance the anisotropic etching by the $Cl_2$ gas. After etching, the remaining thickness of the oxide on the Si(111) surface was measured to be ~130 nm by scanning electron microscopy. The etched Si aperture can be used for NSOM sensor.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.80-81
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• 2012

Recently, one of the critical issues in the etching processes of the nanoscale devices is to achieve ultra-high aspect ratio contact (UHARC) profile without anomalous behaviors such as sidewall bowing, and twisting profile. To achieve this goal, the fluorocarbon plasmas with major advantage of the sidewall passivation have been used commonly with numerous additives to obtain the ideal etch profiles. However, they still suffer from formidable challenges such as tight limits of sidewall bowing and controlling the randomly distorted features in nanoscale etching profile. Furthermore, the absence of the available plasma simulation tools has made it difficult to develop revolutionary technologies to overcome these process limitations, including novel plasma chemistries, and plasma sources. As an effort to address these issues, we performed a fluorocarbon surface kinetic modeling based on the experimental plasma diagnostic data for silicon dioxide etching process under inductively coupled C4F6/Ar/O2 plasmas. For this work, the SiO2 etch rates were investigated with bulk plasma diagnostics tools such as Langmuir probe, cutoff probe and Quadruple Mass Spectrometer (QMS). The surface chemistries of the etched samples were measured by X-ray Photoelectron Spectrometer. To measure plasma parameters, the self-cleaned RF Langmuir probe was used for polymer deposition environment on the probe tip and double-checked by the cutoff probe which was known to be a precise plasma diagnostic tool for the electron density measurement. In addition, neutral and ion fluxes from bulk plasma were monitored with appearance methods using QMS signal. Based on these experimental data, we proposed a phenomenological, and realistic two-layer surface reaction model of SiO2 etch process under the overlying polymer passivation layer, considering material balance of deposition and etching through steady-state fluorocarbon layer. The predicted surface reaction modeling results showed good agreement with the experimental data. With the above studies of plasma surface reaction, we have developed a 3D topography simulator using the multi-layer level set algorithm and new memory saving technique, which is suitable in 3D UHARC etch simulation. Ballistic transports of neutral and ion species inside feature profile was considered by deterministic and Monte Carlo methods, respectively. In case of ultra-high aspect ratio contact hole etching, it is already well-known that the huge computational burden is required for realistic consideration of these ballistic transports. To address this issue, the related computational codes were efficiently parallelized for GPU (Graphic Processing Unit) computing, so that the total computation time could be improved more than few hundred times compared to the serial version. Finally, the 3D topography simulator was integrated with ballistic transport module and etch reaction model. Realistic etch-profile simulations with consideration of the sidewall polymer passivation layer were demonstrated.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.64-70
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• 2006

The 3-dimensional (3D) chip stacking technology is a leading technology to realize a high density and high performance system in package (SiP). There are several kinds of methods for chip stacking, but the stacking and interconnection through Cu filled through-hole via is considered to be one of the most advanced stacking technologies. Therefore, we studied the optimum process of through-hole via formation and Cu filling process for Si wafer stacking. Through-hole via was formed with DRIE (Deep Reactive ion Etching) and Cu filling was realized with the electroplating method. The optimized conditions for the via formation were RE coil power of 200 W, etch/passivation cycle time of 6.5 : 6 s and SF6 : C4F8 gas flow rate of 260 : 100 sccm. The reverse pulsed current of 1.5 A/dm2 was the most favorable condition for the Cu electroplating in the via. The Cu filled Si wafer was chemically and mechanically polished (CMP) for the following flip chip bumping technology.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2000.07a
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• pp.99-102
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• 2000

Via for achieving reliable fabrication of MCM-D substrate was formed on the photosensitive BCB layer. MCM-D substrate consists of photosensitive BCB(Benzocyclobutene) interlayer dielectric and copper conductors. In order to form the vias in photosensitive BCB layer, the process of BCB and plasme etch using $C_2$F$_{6}$ gas were evaluated. The thickness of BCB after soft bake was shrunk down to 60% of the original. AES analysis was done on two vias, one is etched in $C_2$F$_{6}$ gas and the other is non etched. On via etched in $C_2$F$_{6}$, native C was detected and the amount of native C was reduced after Ar sputter. On via non etched in $C_2$F$_{6}$, organic C was detected and amount of organic C was reduced a little after Ar sputter. As a result of AES, BCB residue was not removed by Ar sputter, so plasma etch is necessary for achieving reliable via.ble via.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.61.1-61.1
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• 2015

Nanoscale semiconductor plasma processing has become one of the most challenging issues due to the limits of physicochemical fabrication routes with its inherent complexity. The mission of future and emerging plasma processing for development of next generation semiconductor processing is to achieve the ideal nanostructures without abnormal profiles and damages, such as 3D NAND cell array with ultra-high aspect ratio, cylinder capacitors, shallow trench isolation, and 3D logic devices. In spite of significant contributions of research frontiers, these processes are still unveiled due to their inherent complexity of physicochemical behaviors, and gaps in academic research prevent their predictable simulation. To overcome these issues, a Korean plasma consortium began in 2009 with the principal aim to develop a realistic and ultrafast 3D topography simulator of semiconductor plasma processing coupled with zero-D bulk plasma models. In this work, aspects of this computational tool are introduced. The simulator was composed of a multiple 3D level-set based moving algorithm, zero-D bulk plasma module including pulsed plasma processing, a 3D ballistic transport module, and a surface reaction module. The main rate coefficients in bulk and surface reaction models were extracted by molecular simulations or fitting experimental data from several diagnostic tools in an inductively coupled fluorocarbon plasma system. Furthermore, it is well known that realistic ballistic transport is a simulation bottleneck due to the brute-force computation required. In this work, effective parallel computing using graphics processing units was applied to improve the computational performance drastically, so that computer-aided design of these processes is possible due to drastically reduced computational time. Finally, it is demonstrated that 3D feature profile simulations coupled with bulk plasma models can lead to better understanding of abnormal behaviors, such as necking, bowing, etch stops and twisting during high aspect ratio contact hole etch.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.260-264
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• 2017

Process variation effect on arch-structured gate stacked array (GSTAR) 3-D NAND flash is investigated. In case of arch-structured GSTAR, a shape of the arch channel is depending on an alignment of photo-lithography. Channel width fluctuates according to the channel hole alignment. When a shape of channel exceeds semicircle, channel width becomes longer, increasing drain current. However, electric field concentration on tunnel oxide decreases because less electric flux converges into a larger surface of tunnel oxide. Therefore, program efficiency is dependent on the process variation. Meanwhile, a radius of channel holes near the bottom side become smaller due to an etch slope. It also affects program efficiency as well as channel width. Larger hole radius has an advantage of higher drain current, but causes degradation of program speed.

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

• Journal of Information Display
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.111-116
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• 2009

In this paper, a plasma-assisted patterning method for the organic layers of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and its effect on the OLED performances are reported. Oxygen plasma was used to etch the organic layers, using the top electrode consisting of lithium fluoride and aluminum as an etching mask. Although the current flow at low voltages increased for the etched OLEDs, there was no significant degradation of the OLED efficiency and lifetime in comparison with the conventional OLEDs. Therefore, this method can be used to reduce the ohmic voltage drop along the common top electrodes by connecting the top electrode with highly conductive bus lines after the common organic layers on the bus lines are etched by plasma. To further analyze the current increase at low voltages, the plasma patterning effect on the OLED performance was investigated by changing the device sizes, especially in one direction, and by changing the etching depth in the vertical direction of the device. It was found that the current flow increase at low voltages was not proportional to the device sizes, indicating that the current flow increase does not come from the leakage current along the etched sides. In the etching depth experiment, the current flow at low voltages did not increase when the etching process was stopped in the middle of the hole transport layer. This means that the current flow increase at low voltages is closely related to the modification of the hole injection layer, and thus, to the modification of the interface between the hole injection layer and the bottom electrode.