• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.213-216
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• 2001

Etching behaviors of ferroelectric YMn $O_3$ thin films were studied by an inductively coupled plasma (ICP). Etch characteristic on ferroelectric YMn $O_3$ thin film have been investigated in terms of etch rate, selectivity and etch profile. The maximum etch rate of YMn $O_3$ thin film is 300 $\AA$/min at Ar/C $l_2$ of 2/8, RF power of 800W, dc bias voltage of 200V, chamber pressure of 15mTorr and substrate temperature of 3$0^{\circ}C$. Addition of C $F_4$ gas decrease the etch rate of YMn $O_3$ thin film. From the results of XPS analysis, Y $F_{X}$ compunds were found on the surface of YMn $O_3$ thin film which is etched in Ar/C1/C $F_4$ plasma. The etch profile of YMn $O_3$ film is improved by addition of C $F_4$ gas into the Ar/C $l_2$ plasma. These results suggest that fluoride yttrium acts as a sidewall passivants which reduce the sticking coefficient of chlorine on YMn $O_3$.>.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.8 no.4B
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• pp.565-571
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• 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 Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.21-24
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• 2000

Ferroelectric YMnO$_3$ thin films are excellent dielectric materials for high integrated ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM) with metal-ferroelectric-silicon field effect transistor (MFSFET) structure. In this study, YMnO$_3$ thin films were etched with C1$_2$/Ar gas chemistries in inductively coupled plasma (ICP). The maximum etch rate of YMnO$_3$ thin films is 285 $\AA$/min under C1$_2$/Ar of 10/0, 600 W/-200 V and 15 mTorr. The selectivities of YMnO$_3$ over CeO$_2$ and $Y_2$O$_3$ are 2.85, 1.72, respectively. The results of x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) reflect that Y is removed dominantly by chemical reaction between Y and Cl, while Mn is removed more effective by Ar ion bombardment than chemical reaction. The results of secondary ion mass spectrometer (SIMS) were equal to these of XPS. The etch profile of the etched YMnO$_3$ film is approximately 65$^{\circ}$and free of residues at the sidewall.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.148-148
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• 2011

Recently, there have been many research activities to develop the large-area plasma source, which is able to generate the high-density plasma with relatively good uniformity, for the plasma processing in the thin-film solar cell and display panel industries. The large-area CCP sources have been applied to the PECVD process as well as the etching. Especially, the PECVD processes for the depositions of various films such as a-Si:H, ${\mu}c$-Si:H, Si3N4, and SiO2 take a significant portion of processes. In order to achieve higher deposition rate (DR), good uniformity in large-area reactor, and good film quality (low defect density, high film strength, etc.), the application of VHF (>40 MHz) CCP is indispensible. However, the electromagnetic wave effect in the VHF CCP becomes an issue to resolve for the achievement of good uniformity of plasma and film. Here, we propose a new electrode as part of a method to resolve the standing wave effect in the large-area VHF CCP. The electrode is split up a series of strip-type electrodes and the strip-type electrodes and the ground ones are arranged by turns. The standing wave effect in the longitudinal direction of the strip-type electrode is reduced by using the multi-feeding method of VHF power and the uniformity in the transverse direction of the electrodes is achieved by controlling the gas flow and the gap length between the powered electrodes and the substrate. Also, we provide the process results for the growths of the a-Si:H and the ${\mu}c$-Si:H films. The high DR (2.4 nm/s for a-Si:H film and 1.5 nm/s for the ${\mu}c$-Si:H film), the controllable crystallinity (~70%) for the ${\mu}c$-Si:H film, and the relatively good uniformity (1% for a-Si:H film and 7% for the ${\mu}c$-Si:H film) can be obtained at the high frequency of 40 MHz in the large-area discharge (280 mm${\times}$540 mm). Finally, we will discuss the issues in expanding the multi-electrode to the 8G class large-area plasma processing (2.2 m${\times}$2.4 m) and in improving the process efficiency.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.24 no.9
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• pp.701-709
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• 2011

In semiconductor wafer fabrication, etching is one of the most critical processes, by which a material layer is selectively removed. Because of difficulty to correct a mistake caused by over etching, it is critical that etch should be performed correctly. This paper proposes a new approach for etch endpoint detection of small open area wafers. The traditional endpoint detection technique uses a few manually selected wavelengths, which are adequate for large open areas. As the integrated circuit devices continue to shrink in geometry and increase in device density, detecting the endpoint for small open areas presents a serious challenge to process engineers. In this work, a high-resolution optical emission spectroscopy (OES) sensor is used to provide the necessary sensitivity for detecting subtle endpoint signal. Partial Least Squares (PLS) method is used to analyze the OES data which reduces dimension of the data and increases gap between classes. Support Vector Machine (SVM) is employed to detect endpoint using the data after PLS. SVM classifies normal etching state and after endpoint state. Two data sets from OES are used in training PLS and SVM. The other data sets are used to test the performance of the model. The results show that the trained PLS and SVM hybrid algorithm model detects endpoint accurately.

• Proceedings of the Korean Magnestics Society Conference
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.70-71
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• 2010

In this study, We fabricated FePt-based perpendicular patterned media using a selective combination of E-beam lithography and either Ar plasma etching (deposition-first process) or FePt lift-off (deposition-last process). We employed the deposition-last process to avoid chemical and structural disordering by impinging Ar ions (deposition-first process). For a patterned medium with 100 nm patterns made by this process, the out-of-plane coercivity was measured to be 5 fold larger than its in-plane value. The deposition-last process may be a promising way to achieve ultra-high density patterned media.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.816-823
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• 1996

Chlorine containing high density plasmas are widely used to etch various materials in the microelectronic device fabrication. In this study, the characteristics of inductively coupled $Cl_2(O_2/N_2$) plasmas and their effects on the formation of silicon etching have been investigated using a Langmuir probe, quadrupole mass spectrometry(QMS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS), and Scanning Electron Microscopy(SEM). The addition of oxygen for chlorine plasmas reduced ion current densities and chlorine radical densities compared to the nitrogen addition by the recombination of oxygen with chlorine. Also, when silicon is etched in $Cl_2/O_2$ plasmas, etch products recombined with oxygen such as $SiCl_xO_y$ emerged. However, when nitrogen is added to chlorine, etch products recombined with nitrogen or Si-N bondings on the etched silicon surface were not found. All the silicon etch characteristics were dependent on the plasma conditions such as ion density, radical density, etc. As a result sub micron vertical silicon trench etch profiles could be effectively formed using optimized etch conditions for $Cl_2/O_2\; and \;Cl_2/N_2$ gas combinations.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.236-236
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• 2008

(Bi,La)$Ti_3O_{12}$(BLT) thin film is one of the most attractive materials for ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM) applications due to its some excellent properties such as high fatigue endurance, low processing temperature, and large remanent polarization [1-2]. The authors firstly investigated and reported the damascene process of chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) for BLT thin film capacitor on behalf of plasma etching process for fabrication of FRAM [3]. CMP process could prepare the BLT capacitors with the superior process efficiency to the plasma etching process without the well-known problems such as plasma damages and sloped sidewall, which was enough to apply to the fabrication of FRAM [2]. BLT-CMP characteristics showed the typical oxide-CMP characteristics which were related in both pressure and velocity according to Preston's equation and Hernandez's power law [2-4]. Good surface roughness was also obtained for the densification of multilevel memory structure by CMP process [3]. The well prepared BLT capacitors fabricated by CMP process should have the sufficient ferroelectric properties for FRAM; therefore, in this study the electrical properties of the BLT capacitor fabricated by CMP process were analyzed with the process parameters. Especially, the effects of CMP pressure, which had mainly affected the removal rate of BLT thin films [2], on the electrical properties were investigated. In order to check the influences of the pressure in eMP process on the ferroelectric properties of BLT thin films, the electrical test of the BLT capacitors was performed. The polarization-voltage (P-V) characteristics show a decreased the remanent polarization (Pr) value when CMP process was performed with the high pressure. The shape of the hysteresis loop is close to typical loop of BLT thin films in case of the specimen after CMP process with the pressures of 4.9 kPa; however, the shape of the hysteresis loop is not saturated due to high leakage current caused by structural and/or chemical damages in case of the specimen after CMP process with the pressures of 29.4 kPa. The leakage current density obtained with positive bias is one order lower than that with negative bias in case of 29.4 kPa, which was one or two order higher than in case of 4.9 kPa. The high pressure condition was not suitable for the damascene process of BLT thin films due to the defects in electrical properties although the better efficiency of process. by higher removal rate of BLT thin films was obtained with the high pressure of 29.4 kPa in the previous study [2].

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.161-168
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• 1998

Reactive ion etching process for InGaAs/InP using the CH4/H2 high density inductively coupled plasma was investigated. The experimental design method proposed by Taguchi was utilized to cover the whole parameter range while maintaining reasonable number of actual experiments. Results showed that the ICP power mainly affects surface roughness and verticality of the sidewall, bias power does etch rate and verticality, CH4 gas concentraion does the verticality and etch rate, and the distance between the induction coil and specimen mostly affects the surface roughness. It was also observed that the chamber pressure is the dominant parameter for the etch rate and verticality of the sidewall. The optimum condition was ICP power 700W, bias power 150 W, 15% $CH_4$, 7.5 mTorr, and 14 cm distance, resulting in about 3 $\mu\textrm{m}$/hr etch rate with smooth surfaces and vertical mesa sidewalls.