• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.28-33
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• 2020

Plasma etching process employs high density plasma to create surface chemistry and physical reactions, by which to remove material. Plasma chamber includes silicon-based materials such as a focus ring and gas distribution plate. Focus ring needs to be replaced after a short period. For this reason, there is a need to find materials resistant to erosion by plasma. The developed chemical vapor deposition processing to produce silicon carbide parts with high purity has also supported its widespread use in the plasma etch process. Silicon carbide maintains mechanical strength at high temperature, it have been use to chamber parts for plasma. Recently, besides the structural aspects of silicon carbide, its electrical conductivity and possibly its enhanced life time under high density plasma with less generation of contamination particles are drawing attention for use in applications such as upper electrode or focus rings, which have been made of silicon for a long time. However, especially for high purity silicon carbide focus ring, which has usually been made by the chemical vapor deposition method, there has been no study about quality improvement. The goal of this study is to reduce surface roughness and depth of damage by diamond tool grit size and tool dressing of diamond tools for precise dimensional assurance of focus rings.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.19 no.8
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• pp.421-426
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• 2009

We report on the capacitively coupled O2 plasma etching of PMMA and polycarbonate (PC) with a diffusion pump. Plasma process variables were process pressure and CCP power at 5 sccm $O_2$ gas flow rate. Characterization was done in order to analyze etch rate, etch selectivity, surface roughness, and morphology using stylus surface profilometry and scanning electron microscopy. Self bias decreased with increase of process pressure in the range of 25$\sim$180 mTorr. We found an important result for optimum pressure for the highest etch rate of PMMA and PC, which was 60 mTorr. PMMA and PC had etch rates of 0.46 and 0.28 ${\mu}m$/min under pressure conditions, respectively. More specifically, etch rates of the materials increased when the pressure changed from 25 mTorr to 60 mTorr. However, they reduced when the pressure increased further after 60 mTorr. RMS roughnesses of the etched surfaces were in the range of 2.2$\sim$2.9 nm. Etch selectivity of PMMA to a photoresist was $\sim$1.5:1 and that of PC was $\sim$0.9:1. Etch rate constant was about 0.04 ${\mu}m$/minW and 0.02 ${\mu}m$/minW for PMMA and PC, respectively, with the CCP power change at 5 sccm $O_2$ and 40 mTorr process pressure. PC had more erosion on the etched sidewall than PMMA did. The OES data showed that the intensity of the oxygen atomic peak (777.196 nm) proportionally increased with the CCP power.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers P
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• v.58 no.4
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• pp.516-520
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• 2009

Atmosphere Plasmas of Gas Discharge (APGD) have been used in plasma sources for material processing such as etching, deposition, surface modification, etc. This study is to investigate and understand the fundamental plasma discharge properties. Especially, $SF_6/N_2$ mixed gas would be used in power transformer, GIS (Gas insulated switchgear) and so on. In this paper, we developed a one dimensional fluid simulation model with capacitively coupled plasma chamber at the atmosphere pressure (760 [Torr]). 38 kinds of $SF_6/N_2$ plasma particles which are an electron, two positive ions (${SF_5}^+$, ${N_2}^+$), five negative ions (${SF_6}^-$, ${SF_5}^-$, ${SF_4}^-$, ${F_2}^-$, ${F_1}^-$), thirty excitation and vibrational particles for $N_2$ were considered in this computation. The $N_2$ gases of 20%, 50%, 80% were mixed in $SF_6$ gas. As the amount of $N_2$ gas was increased, the properties of electro-negative plasma moved toward the electro-positive plasma.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.71-77
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• 2013

Advanced semiconductor manufacturing technology requires methods to maximize tool efficiency and improve product quality by reducing process variability. Real-time plasma process monitoring and diagnosis have become crucial for fault detection and classification (FDC) and advanced process control (APC). Additional sensors may increase the accuracy of detection of process anomalies, and optical monitoring methods are non-invasive. In this paper, we propose the use of a chromatic data acquisition system for real-time in-situ plasma process monitoring called the Plasma Eyes Chromatic System (PECS). The proposed system was initially tested in a six-inch research tool, and it was then further evaluated for its potential to detect process anomalies in an eight-inch production tool for etching blanket oxide films. Chromatic representation of the PECS output shows a clear correlation with small changes in process parameters, such as RF power, pressure, and gas flow. We also present how the PECS may be adapted as an in-situ plasma arc detector. The proposed system can provide useful indications of a faulty process in a timely and non-invasive manner for successful run-to-run (R2R) control and FDC.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.322-325
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• 2003

BST thin films were etched with inductively coupled plasmas. A chemically assisted physical etch of BST was experimentally confirmed by ICP under various gas mixtures. After a 20 % addition of $BCl_3$ to the $Cl_2/Ar$ mixture, resulting in an increased the chemical effect. As a increases of RF power, substrate power, and substrate temperature, and decrease of working pressure, the ion energy flux and chlorine atoms density increased. The maximum etch rate of the BST thin films was 90.1 nm/min at the RF power, substrate power, working pressure, and substrate temperature were 700 W, 300 W, 1.6 Pa, and 20 $^{\circ}C$, respectively. It was proposed that sputter etching is dominant etching mechanism while the contribution of chemical reaction is relatively low due to low volatility of etching product.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.206-211
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• 2005

The device makers want to make higher density chips on the wafer through scale-down. The change of WSix/poly-Si gate film thickness is one of the key issues under 100 nm device structure. As a new device etching process is applied, end point detection(EPD) time delay was occurred in DPS+ poly chamber of Applied Materials. This is a barrier of device shrink because EPD time delay made physical damage on the surface of gate oxide. To investigate the EPD time delay, the experimental test combined with OES(Optical Emission Spectroscopy) and SEM(Scanning Electron Microscopy) was performed using patterned wafers. As a result, a EPD delay time is reduced by a new chamber seasoning and a new wavelength line through plasma scan. Applying a new wavelength of 252 nm makes it successful to call corrected EPD in WSix/poly-Si stack-down gate etching in the DPS+ poly chamber for the current and next generation devices.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.551-556
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• 2001

In this work, the recovery of etching damage in the etched PZT thin film with $O_2$ annealing has been studied. The PZT thin films were etched as a function of Cl$_2$/Ar and additive CF$_4$ into Cl$_2$(80%) /Ar(20%). the etch rates of PZT thin films were 1600$\AA$/min at Cl$_2$(80%)/Ar(20%) and 1970 $\AA$/min at 30% additive Cf$_4$ into Cl$_2$(80%)/Ar(20%). In order to recover the characteristics of etched PZT thin films, the etched PZT thin films were annealed in $O_2$ atmosphere at various temperatures. From the hysteresis curves, ferroelectrical properties are improved by $O_2$ annealing process. The improvement of ferroelectric behavior is consistent with the increase of the (100) and (200) PZT phase revealed by x-ray diffraction (XRD). From x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis, intensities of Pb-O, Zr-O and Ti-O peak increase and the chemical residue peak is reduced by $O_2$ annealing. From the atomic force microscopy (AFM) images. it shows that the surface morphology of re-annealed PZT thin films after etching is improved.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.132-132
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• 2010

In the nano-scale Si processing, patterning processes based on multilevel resist structures becoming more critical due to continuously decreasing resist thickness and feature size. In particular, highly selective etching of the first dielectric layer with resist patterns are great importance. In this work, process window for the infinitely high etch selectivity of silicon oxynitride (SiON) layers and silicon nitride (Si3N4) with EUV resist was investigated during etching of SiON/EUV resist and Si3N4/EUV resist in a CH2F2/N2/Ar dual-frequency superimposed capacitive coupled plasma (DFS-CCP) by varying the process parameters, such as the CH2F2 and N2 flow ratio and low-frequency source power (PLF). It was found that the CH2F2/N2 flow ratio was found to play a critical role in determining the process window for ultra high etch selectivity, due to the differences in change of the degree of polymerization on SiON, Si3N4, and EUV resist. Control of N2 flow ratio gave the possibility of obtaining the ultra high etch selectivity by keeping the steady-state hydrofluorocarbon layer thickness thin on the SiON and Si3N4 surface due to effective formation of HCN etch by-products and, in turn, in continuous SiON and Si3N4 etching, while the hydrofluorocarbon layer is deposited on the EUV resist surface.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.244-250
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• 2008

An inductively coupled plasma etching process to replace an existing slower rate reactive ion etching process for $60{\mu}m$ diameter via-holes using Cl2/BCl3 gases has been investigated. Process pressure and platen power were varied at a constant ICP coil power to reproduce the RIE etched $200{\mu}m$ deep via profile, at high etch rate. Desired etch profile was obtained at 40 m Torr pressure, 950 W coil power, 90W platen power with an etch rate ${\sim}4{\mu}m$/min and via etch yield >90% over a 3-inch wafer, using $24{\mu}m$ thick photoresist mask. The etch uniformity and reproducibility obtained for the process were better than 4%. The metallized via-hole dc resistance measured was ${\sim}0.5{\Omega}$ and via inductance value measured was $\sim$83 pH.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1998.07g
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• pp.2515-2517
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• 1998

The micro fresnel lens(MFL) was modeled and fabricated on a XY-stage electrostatically driven by comb actuator. The modeled MFL was approximated as a step shape with 4-phase and 4-zone plate. The focal length and diameter of the MFL is 20mm and 912${\mu}m$, respectively. The XY-stage suspending the MFL is designed to generate a large static displacement up to about 20${\mu}m$. On SOI substrates, we first fabricated MFL using the RIE(reactive Ion etching) technology and then patterned and etched bulk silicon to make XY-stage. After the fabrication of all structures on top side of the SOI substrates. $Si_3N_4$ was deposited for passivation of all structures using PECVD(plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition). All the MFL systems width comb drive actuator were released by KOH etching from the bottom side of the SOI wafer using double-sided alignment technique. In fabrication of MFL, a dry etching conditions is established in order to improve surface roughness and to control the etched depth.