• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.472-472
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• 2011

The capacitive coupled plasma (CCP) has been extensively used in the semiconductor industry because it has not only good uniformity, but also low electron temperature. But CCP source has some problems, such as difficulty in varying the ion bombardment energy separately, low plasma density, and high processing pressure, etc. In this reason, dual frequency CCP has been investigated with a separate substrate biasing to control the plasma parameters and to obtain high etch rate with high etch selectivity. Especially, in this study, we studied on the etching of $SiO_2$ by using the pulse-time modulation in the dual-frequency CCP source composed of 60 MHz/ 2 MHz rf power. By using the combination of high /low rf powers, the differences in the gas dissociation, plasma density, and etch characteristics were investigated. Also, as the size of the semiconductor device is decreased to nano-scale, the etching of contact hole which has nano-scale higher aspect ratio is required. For the nano-scale contact hole etching by using continuous plasma, several etch problems such as bowing, sidewall taper, twist, mask faceting, erosion, distortions etc. occurs. To resolve these problems, etching in low process pressure, more sidewall passivation by using fluorocarbon-based plasma with high carbon ratio, low temperature processing, charge effect breaking, power modulation are needed. Therefore, in this study, to resolve these problems, we used the pulse-time modulated dual-frequency CCP system. Pulse plasma is generated by periodical turning the RF power On and Off state. We measured the etch rate, etch selectivity and etch profile by using a step profilometer and SEM. Also the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic analysis on the surfaces etched by different duty ratio conditions correlate with the results above.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.13-20
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• 2014

In this paper, the effects of a nonionic surfactant on the etch uniformity and the etch profile during the wet-etching process of high-purity aluminum were investigated for the fabrication of uniform micropattern arrays. To improve the surface roughness of a high-purity aluminum plate, a mechanical lapping process and an electrolytic polishing process were used. After electrolytic polishing process, the surface roughness, Ra, of the high-purity aluminum plate was improved from $1.25{\mu}m$ to $0.02{\mu}m$. A photoresist was used as an etching mask during the aluminum etching process, where the mixture of phosphoric acid, acetic acid, nitric acid, a nonionic surfactant and water was used as the aluminum etchant. Different amounts of the Triton X-100 nonionic surfactant were added to the aluminum etchant to investigate the effect of a nonionic surfactant during the wet-etching process of high-purity aluminum. The etch rate and the etch profile were measured by an optical interferometer and a scanning electron microscope.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 1999.11a
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• pp.41-43
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• 1999

Among the feffoelectric thin films that have been widely investigated for ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM) applications, SrBi$_2$Ta$_2$$O_{9}$ thin film is appropriate to memory capacitor materials for its excellent fatigue endurance. However, very few studies on etch properties of SBT thin film have been reported although dry etching is an area that demands a great deal of attention in the very large scale integrations. In this study, the a SrBi$_2$Ta$_2$$O_{9}$ thin films were etched by using magnetically enhanced inductively coupled Ar/CHF$_3$ plasma. Etch properties, such as etch rate, selectivity, and etched profile, were measured according to gas mixing ratio of CHF$_3$(Ar$_{7}$+CHF$_3$) and the other process conditions were fixed at RF power of 600 W, dc bias voltage of 150 V, chamber pressure of 10 mTorr. Maximum etch rate of SBT thin films was 1750 A77in, under CHF$_3$(Ar+CHF$_3$) of 0.1. The selectivities of SBT to Pt and PR were 1.35 and 0.94 respectively. The chemical reaction of etched surface were investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. The Sr and Ta atoms of SBT film react with fluorine and then Sr-F and Ta-F were removed by the physical sputtering of Ar ion. The surface of etched SBT film with CHF$_3$(Ar+CHF$_3$) of 0.1 was analyzed by secondary ion mass spectrometer (SIMS). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used for examination of etched profile of SBT film under CHF$_3$(Ar+CHF$_3$) of 0.1 was about 85˚.85˚.˚.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.287-292
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• 1997

This study was tried to form the silica waveguide using high density plasma. Plasma characteristics have been investigated as a function of etch parameters using a single Langmuir probe and optical emission spectroscopy(OES). As etch parameters, $CF_4/CHF_3$ ratio, bias power, and source power were chosen as main variables. The oxide etch characteristics of inductively coupled plasma(ICP) dry etcher such as the etch rate, etch profile, and surface roughness were investigated s a function of etch parameters. On the basis of these results, the core pattern of the wave guide composed of $SiO_2-P_2O_5$ was formed. It was confirmed that the etch rate of $SiO_2-P_2O_5$ core layer was 380 nm/min and the aluminum selectivity to oxide, that is, mask layer was approximately 30:1. The SEM images showed vertical etched profiles and minimal loss of pattern width.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.996-1002
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• 2000

Ferroelectric (Ba, Sr) TiO$_3$(BST) thin films have attracted much attention for use in new capacitor materials of dynamic random access memories (DRAMs). In order to apply BST to the DRAMs, the etching process for BST thin film with high etch rate and vertical profile must be developed. However, the former studies have the problem of low etch rate. In this study, in order to increase the etch rate, BST thin films were etched with a magnetically enhanced inductively coupled plasma(MEICP) that have much higher plasma density than RIE (reactive ion etching) and ICP (inductively coupled plasma). Experiment was done by varying the etching parameters such as CF$_4$/(CF$_4$+Ar) gas mixing ratio, rf power, dc bias voltage and chamber pressure. The maximum etch rate of the BST films was 170nm/min under CF$_4$/CF$_4$+Ar) of 0.1, 600 W/-350 V and 5 mTorr. The selectivities of BST to Pt and PR were 0.6 and 0.7, respectively. Chemical reaction and residue of the etched surface were investigated with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS).

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 1999.11a
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• pp.468-470
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• 1999

One of the most critical problem in etching of platinum was generally known that the etch slope was gradual. therefore, the addition of $N_2$ gas into the Ar/C1$_2$ gas mixture, which has been proposed the optimized etching gas combination for etching of platinum in our previous article, was performed. The selectivity of platinum film to oxide film as an etch mask increased with the addition of N2 gas, and the steeper etch slope over 75 $^{\circ}$ could be obtained. These phenomena were interpreted the results the results of a blocking layer such as Si-N or Si-O-N on the oxide mask. Compostional analysis was carried out by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). Moreover, it could be obtained the higher etch rate of Pt film and steeper profile without residues such as p.-Cl and Pt-Pt ant the addition N\ulcorner of 20 % gas in Ar(90)/Cl$_2$(10) Plasma. The Plasma characteristic was extracted from optical emissionspectroscopy (OES).

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.188-192
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• 2000

In this study PZT etching was performed using planar inductively coupled Ar/Cl$_2$/BCI$_3$ plasma. The etch rate of PZT film was 2450 $\AA$/min at Ar(20)/BCl$_3$(80) gas mixing ratio and substrate temperature of 8$0^{\circ}C$. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS) analysis for films composition of etched PZT surface was utilized. The chemical bond of PbO is broken by ion bombardment and Cl radical, and the peak of metal Pb in a Pb 4f narrow scan begins to appear upon etching. As increasing additive BCl$_3$content the relative content of oxygen decreases rapidly in contrast with etch rate of PZT thin film. So we though that the etch rate of PZT thin film increased because abundant B and BCl radicals made volatile oxy-compound such as B$_{x}$/O$_{y}$ and/or BClO$_{x}$ bond. We achieved etch profile of about 80$^{\circ}$ at Ar(20)/BCl$_3$(80) gas mixing condition and substrate temperature of 8$0^{\circ}C$TEX>X>.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.709-713
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• 2004

Characteristics of laser-assisted wet etching of titanium in phosphoric acid were investigated to examine the feasibility of this method for fabrication of high aspect ratio microchannels. Laser power, number of scans, etchant concentration, position of beam waist and scanning speed were taken into consideration as the major process parameters exerting the temperature distribution and the cross sectional profile of etched channels. Experimental results indicated that laser power influences on both etch width and depth while number of scans and scanning speed mainly affect on the etch depth. At a low etchant concentration, the cross sectional profile of an etched channel becomes a U-shape but it gradually turns into a V-shape as the concentration increases. On the other hand, surface of the laser beam focus with respect to the sample surface is found to be a key factor determining the bubble dynamics and thus the process stability. It is demonstrated that metallic microchannels with different cross sectional profiles can be fabricated by properly controlling the process parameters. Microchannels of aspect ratio up to 8 with the width and depth ranges of 8∼32 m and 50∼300 m, respectively, were fabricated.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1997.11a
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• pp.279-281
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• 1997

The properties of Platinum dry etching were investigated in MICP(Magnetized Inductively Coupled Plasma). The problem with Platinum etching is the redeposition of sputtered Platinum on the sidewall. Because of the redeposits on the sidewall, the etching of patterned Platinum structure produce feature sizes that exceed the original dimension of the PR size and the etch profile has needle-like shape.[1] Generally, $Cl_2$ plasma is used for the fence-free etching.[1][2][3] The main object of this study was to investigate a new process technology for the fence-free Pt etching. Platinum was etched with Ar plasma at the cryogenic temperature and with Ar/$SF_6$ plasma at room temperature. In cryogenic etching, the height of fence was reduced to 20% at $-190^{\circ}C$ compared with that of room temp., but the etch profile was not fence-free. In Ar/$SF_6$ Plasma, chemical reaction took part in etching process. The trend of properties of Ar/$SF_6$ Plasma etching is similar to that of $Cl_2$ Plasma etching. Fence-free etching was possible, but PR selectivity was very low. A new gas chemistry for fence-free Platinum etching was proposed in this study.