• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.635-639
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• 2003

We investigated dry etching of GaAs and AiGaAs in a high density planar inductively coupled plasma system with BCl$_3$and BCl$_3$/Ar gas chemistry. A detailed etch process study of GaAs and ALGaAs was peformed as functions of ICP source power, RIE chuck power and mixing ratio of $BCl_3$ and Ar. Chamber process pressure was fixed at 7.5 mTorr in this study. The ICP source power and RIE chuck power were varied from 0 to 500 W and from 0 to 150 W, respectively. GaAs etch rate increased with the increase of ICP source power and RIE chuck power. It was also found that etch rates of GaAs in $15BCi_3$/5Ar plasmas were relatively high with applied RIE chuck power compared to pure 20 sccm $BCl_3$plasmas. The result was the same as AlGaAs. We expect that high ion-assisted effect in $BCl_3$/Ar plasma increased etch rates of both materials. The GaAs and AlGaAs features etched at 20 sccm $BCl_3$and $15BCl_3$/5Ar with 300 W ICP source power, 100 W RIE chuck power and 7.5 mTorr showed very smooth surfaces(RMS roughness < 2 nm) and excellent sidewall. XPS study on the surfaces of processed GaAs also proved extremely clean surfaces of the materials after dry etching.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.190-194
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• 2002

In this study, the etching of Au thin films have been performed in an inductively coupled CF4/Cl2/Ar plasma. The etch properties were measured as the CF4 adds from 0 % to 30 % to the Cl2/(Cl2 + Ar) gas mixing ratio of 0.2. Other parameters were fixed at a rf power of 700 W, a dc bias voltage of 150 V, a chamber pressure of 15 mTorr, and a substrate temperature of $30^{\circ}C$. The highest etch rate of the Au thin film was 370 nm/min at a 10 % additive CF4 into Cl2/(Cl2 + Ar) gas mixing ratio of 0.2. The surface reaction of the etched Au thin films was investigated using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. From x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis, the intensities of Au peaks are changed. There is a chemical reaction between Cl and Au. Au-Cl is hard to remove on the surface because of its high melting point and the etching products can be sputtered by Ar ion bombardment. We obtained the cleaned and steep profile.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.314-318
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• 2010

We fabricated a plasma texturing for multi-crystalline silicon cells using reactive ion etching (RIE). Multi-crystalline Si cells have not benefited from the cost-effective wet-chemical texturing processes that reduce front surface reflectance on single-crystal wafers. Elimination of plasma damage has been achieved while keeping front reflectance to extremely low levels. We will discuss reflectance, quantum efficiency and conversion efficiency for multi-crystalline Si solar cell by each RIE process conditions.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.24-28
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• 2007

The etching of zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films has been studied using a high density plasma in a $Cl_2/Ar$ gas. The etch characteristics of ZnO thin films were systematically investigated on varying $Cl_2$ concentration, coil rf power, dc-bias voltage, and gas pressure. With increasing $Cl_2$ concentration, the etch rate of ZnO thin film increased, the redeposition around the etched patterns decreased but the sidewall slope of the etched patterns slanted. As the coil rf power and dc-bias voltage increased, the etch rates of ZnO thin films increased and etch profiles of ZnO thin films were improved. With increasing gas pressure, the etch rate of ZnO thin films slightly increased but little change in etch profile was observed. Based on these results, the optimal etching conditions of ZnO thin film were selected. Finally, the etching of ZnO thin films with a high degree of anisotropy of approximately $75^{\circ}{\sim}80^{\circ}$ without the redepositions and residues was successfully achieved at the etching conditions of 20% $Cl_2$ concentration, coil rf power of 1000 W, dc-bias voltage of 400 V, and gas pressure of 5 mTorr.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.66-72
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• 2020

The difference of plasma resistance between the CAS glass bulk and coating films were compared. Plasma resistance was confirmed by analyzing the etch rate and the microstructure of the surface when the CAS glass bulk and the glass coating film were etched with CF₄/O₂/Ar plasma gas. CAS glass coating film was etched up to 25 times faster than the glass bulk. A statistically high correlation between the surface roughness and the etching rate of the coating film was derived, and thus, the high surface roughness of the coating film was determined to cause rapid etching. In addition, cristobalite crystals that has a low Ca content and a high Si content, was foamed on the glass coating film. Therefore, the CAS glass coating film is considered to have low plasma resistance compared to the glass bulk.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.105-105
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• 2009

$ZrO_2$ is one of the most attractive high dielectric constant (high-k) materials. As integrated circuit device dimensions continue to be scaled down, high-k materials have been studied more to resolve the problems for replacing the EY31conventional $SiO_2$. $ZrO_2$ has many favorable properties as a high dielectric constant (k= 20~25), wide band gap (5~7 eV) as well as a close thermal expansion coefficient with Si that results in good thermal stability of the $ZrO_2/Si$ structure. In order to get fine-line patterns, plasma etching has been studied more in the fabrication of ultra large-scale integrated circuits. The relation between the etch characteristics of high-k dielectric materials and plasma properties is required to be studied more to match standard processing procedure with low damaged removal process. Due to the easy control of ion energy and flux, low ownership and simple structure of the inductively coupled plasma (ICP), we chose it for high-density plasma in our study. And the $BCl_3$ included in the gas due to the effective extraction of oxygen in the form of $BCl_xO_y$ compound In this study, the surface kinetic properties of $ZrO_2$ thin film was investigated in function of Ch addition to $BCl_3/Ar$ gas mixture ratio, RF power and DC-bias power based on substrate temperature. The figure 1 showed the etch rate of $ZrO_2$ thin film as function of gas mixing ratio of $Cl_2/BCl_3/Ar$ dependent on temperature. The chemical state of film was investigated using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The characteristics of the plasma were estimated using optical emission spectroscopy (OES). Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) was used for elemental analysis of etched surface.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.383-393
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• 2008

The etching mechanism of $ZrO_2$ thin films and etch selectivity over some materials in both $BCl_3$/Ar and $BCl_3/CHF_3$/Ar plasmas are investigated using a combination of experimental and modeling methods. To obtain the data on plasma composition and fluxes of active species, global (0-dimensional) plasma models are developed with Langmuir probe diagnostics data. In $BCl_3$/Ar plasma, changes in gas mixing ratio result in non-linear changes of both densities and fluxes for Cl, $BCl_2$, and ${BCl_2}^+$. In this work, it is shown that the non-monotonic behavior of the $ZrO_2$ etch rate as a function of the $BCl_3$/Ar mixing ratio could be related to the ion-assisted etch mechanism and the ion-flux-limited etch regime. The addition of up to 33% $CHF_3$ to the $BCl_3$-rich $BCl_3$Ar plasma does not influence the $ZrO_2$ etch rate, but it non-monotonically changes the etch rates of both Si and $SiO_2$. The last effect can probably be associated with the corresponding behavior of the F atom density.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.49 no.8
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• pp.438-444
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• 2000

We report the effects of etch process parameters on the ohmic contact formation in the plasma etching of GaN. Planar inductively coupled plasma system with $CH_4/H_2/Ar$gas chemistry has been used as etch reactor. The contact resistance and the specific contact resistance have been investigated using transfer length method as a function of RF bias power and %Ar gas concentration in total flow rate. AES(Auger electron spectroscopy) analysis revealed that the etched GaN has nonstoichiometric Ga rich surface and was contaminated by carbon and oxygen. Especially large amount of carbon was detected at the sample etched for high bias power (or voltage) condition, where severe degradation of contact resistance was occurred. We achieved the low ohmic contact of $2.4{\times}10^{-3} {\Omega}cm^2$ specific contact resistance at the input power 400 W, RF bias power 150 W, and working pressure 10mTorr with 10 sccm $CH_4$, 15 sccm H2, 5 sccm Ar gas composition.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.38-49
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• 2001

The surface of polyimide membrane was modified by plasma treatment using Ar and NH~. and the permeability and selectivity for the mixture gas $(CO_2/N_2=20/80 vol%)$ were measured. The per¬meation experiments were performed by a variable volume method at $30^{\circ}$C and total pressure of 5 atm, The effect of the plasma conditions such as treatment time, power input, gas flow rate and pressure in the reactor on the transport Dwperties of modified membranes was investigated. The surface of the plasma treated membrane was analyzed by means of FTlR - ATH, ESCA and AFM. The dependences of the wettability and the etching on plasma treatment time were investigated by use of the contact angle and the weight loss measurement. Measurements of gas pcnneability characteristic were performed using both dry and wet membranes. The effects of experimental conditions such as temperature on the membrane performance were studied.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2000.06b
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• pp.282-285
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• 2000

Four helical resonators are distributed in a 2 ${\times}$ 2 array by modifying upper part of the conventional reactive ion etching(RIE) type LCD etcher in order to prepare a large area plasma source. Since the resonance condition of the RF signal to the helical antenna, one RF power supply is used for delivering the power efficiently to all four helical resonators without an impedance matching network Previous work of 2 ${\times}$ 2array inductively coupled plasma(ICP)requires one matching circuit to each ICP antenna for more efficient power deliverly Distributions of ion density and electron temperature are measured in terms of chamber pressure, gas flow rate and RF power . By adjusting the power distribution among the four helical resonator units, argon plasma density of higher than 10$\^$17/㎥ with the uniformity of better than 7％ can be obtained in the 620 ${\times}$ 620$\textrm{mm}^2$ chamber.