• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.144-147
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• 2011

In this work, we present a study regarding the etching characteristics on titanium nitride (TiN) thin films using an inductively coupled plasma system. The TiN thin film was etched using a $N_2/BCl_3$/Ar plasma. The studied etching parameters were the gas mixing ratio, the radio frequency (RF) power, the direct current (DC)-bias voltages, and the process pressures. The baseline conditions were as follows: RF power = 500 W, DC-bias voltage = -150 V, substrate temperature = $40^{\circ}C$, and process pressure = 15 mTorr. The maximum etch rate and the selectivity of the TiN to the $SiO_2$ thin film were 62.38 nm/min and 5.7, respectively. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results showed no accumulation of etching byproducts from the etched surface of the TiN thin film. Based on the experimental results, the etched TiN thin film was obtained by the chemical etching found in the reactive ion etching mechanism.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.1-5
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• 2009

This investigation is applied Taguchi method and the analysis of variance(ANOVA) to the reactive ion etching(RIE) characteristics of $SiO_2$ film coated on a wafer with Experimental Analysis and Optimization of $CF_4/O_2$ Plasma Etching Process mixture. Plans of experiments via nine experimental runs are based on the orthogonal arrays. A $L_9$ orthogonal array was selected with factors and three levels. The three factors included etching time, RF power, gas mixture ratio. The etching rate of the film were measured as a function of those factors. In this study, the etching thickness mean and uniformity of thickness of the RIE are adopted as the quality targets of the RIE etching process. The partial factorial design of the Taguchi method provides an economical and systematic method for determining the applicable process parameters. The RIE are found to be the most significant factors in both the thickness mean and the uniformity of thickness for a RIE etching process.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.133-138
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• 1999

Research on the etching reaction of UO$_2$ with CF$_4$/O$_2$gas mixture plasma is carried out. The reaction rates are investigated as a function of CF$_4$/O$_2$ ratio, plasma power, and substrate temperature. It is found that there exists an optimum CF$_4$/O$_2$ ratio around 4:1 at all temperatures up to 37$0^{\circ}C$ and surface analysis using XPS X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy) confirms the result. Peak rate at the optimum gas composition increases with increasing temperature. Highest rate obtained in this study leaches 1050 monolayers/min. at 37$0^{\circ}C$ under r. f. power of 150 W, which is equivalent to about 0.5${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$/min. The rate also increases with increasing r. f. power, thus, higher power and higher substrate temperature will undoubtedly raise the etching reaction rate much further. This reaction seems to be an activated process, whose activation energy will be derived in the following experiments.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.265-269
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• 2000

$(Ba, Sr)TiO_3$thin films were etched with a magnetically enhanced inductively coupled plasma (MEICP) at different CF4/Ar gas mixing ratios. Experimental was done by varying the etching parameters such as rf power, dc bias and chamber pressure. The maximum etch rate of the BST films was $1800{AA}/min$ under $CF_4/(CF_4+Ar)$ of 0.1, 600 W/350 V and 5 mTorr. The selectivity of BST to Pt and PR was 0.6, 0.7, respectively. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results show that surface reaction between Ba, Sr, Ti and C, F radicals occurs during the (Ba, Sr)TiO3 etching. To analyze the composition of surface residue after the etching, films etched with different CF_4/Ar$ gas mixing ratio were investigated using XPS and secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS).

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.124-125
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• 2005

ZnS:Mn thin films have attracted great interest as electroluminescence devices. In this study, inductively coupled BCl$_3$/Ar plasma was used to etch ZnS:Mn thin films. We obtained the maximum etch rate of ZnS:Mn thin films was 2209 ${\AA}$/min at a BCl$_3$(20%)/Ar(80%) gas mixing ratio, an RF power of 700 W, a DC bias voltage of-250 V, a total gas flow of 20 sccm, and a chamber pressure of 1 Pa. 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 products.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.509-509
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• 2011

Superhydrophobic surfaces on alloyed steels were fabricated with a non-conventional method of plasma etching and subsequent water immersion procedure. High aspect ratio nanopatterns of nanoflake or nano-needle were created on the steels with various Cr content in its composition. With CF4 plasma treatment in radio-frequence chemical vapor deposition (r.-f. CVD) method, steel surfaces were etched and fluorinated by CF4 plasma, which induced the nanopattern evolution through the water immersion process. It was found that fluorine ion played a role as a catalyst to form nanopatterns in water elucidated with XPS and TEM analysis. The hierarchical patterns in micro- and nano scale leads to superhydrophobic properties on the surfaces by deposition of a hydrophobic coating with a-C:H:Si:O film deposited with a gas precursor of hexamethlydisiloxane (HMDSO) with its lower surface energy of 24.2 mN/m, similar to that of curticular wax covering lotus surfaces. Since this method is based on plasma dry etching & coating, precise patterning of surface texturing would be potential on steel or metal surfaces. Patterned hydrophobic steel surfaces were demonstrated by mimicking the Robinia pseudoacacia or acacia leaf, on which water was collected from the humid air using a patterned hydrophobicity on the steels. It is expected that this facile, non-toxic and fast technique would accelerate the large-scale production of superhydrophobic engineering materials with industrial applications.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.447-452
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• 1998

The selective dry etching of GaAs to Al\ulcornerGa\ulcornerAs using $BCI_3/SF_6$ gas mixture in electron cyclotron resonance(ECR) plasma is investigated. A selectivity of GaAs to AlGaAs of more than 100 and maximum etch rate of GaAs are obtained at a gas ratio $SF_6/BCI_3+SF_6$ of 25%. We verified the formation of $AlF_3$ on $Al_{0.25}Ga_{0.75}As$from the Auger spectra which enhanced the etch selectivity. In order to investigate surface damage of AlGaAs caused by ECR plasma, we performed a low temperature photoluminescence(PL) measurement as a function of RF power. As the RF power. As the RF power increases, the PL intensity decreases monotonically from 50 to 100 Wand then repidly decreases until 250 W. This behavior is due to surface damage by plasma treatment. This dry etching technique using $BCI_3/SF_6$ gas mixture in ECR plasma is suitable for gate recess formation on the GaAs based pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor(PHEMT)

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.527-532
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• 2001

Dry etching of copper film using $O_2$ plasma and H(hfac) has been investigated. A one-step process consisting of copper film oxidation with an $O_2$ plasma and the removal of surface copper oxide by the reaction with H(hfac) to form volatile Cu(hfac)$_2$ and $H_2O$ was carried but. The etching rate of Cu in the range from 50 to 700 /min was obtained depending on the substrate temperature, the H(hfac)/O$_2$ flow rate ratio, and the plasma power. The copper film etch rate increased with increasing RF power at the temperatures higher than 215$^{\circ}C$. The optimum H(hfac)/O$_2$ flow rate ratio was 1:1, suggesting that the oxidation process and the reaction with H(hfac) should be in balance. Cu patterning using a Ti mask was performed at a flow rate ratio of 1:1 on 25$0^{\circ}C$\ulcorner and an isotropic etching profile with a taper slope of 30$^{\circ}$was obtained. Cu dry patterning with a tapered angle which is necessary for the advanced high resolution large area thin film transistor liquid-crystal displays was thus successfully obtained from one step process by manipulating the substrate temperature, RF power, and flow rate ratio.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 1996.05a
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• pp.288-291
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• 1996

The surface properties after plasma etching of TiW solutions using the chemistries of BCl$_3$ and SF$\_$6/ gases with varying mixing ratio have been investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The elements of C, Cl, F, O and S are observed on the etched TiW films. After plasma etching with SF$\_$6/ gas, Ti-S bond are detected on the samples and Ti-S bond makes a role of passivation layer that surpresses Ti-O formation. After plasma etching wish BCl$_3$ gas, Ti are easily removed but W are hardly etched. As a results, W/Ti are increased on the etched sample.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2003.05c
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• pp.178-181
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• 2003

In this work, we etched PZT films with various additive gases ($O_2$ and Ar) in $Cl_2/CF_4$ plasmas, while mixing ratio was fixed at 8/2. After the etching, the plasma induced damages are characterized in terms of hysteresis curves, leakage current, retention properties, and switching polarization. When the electrical properties of PZT etched in $O_2$ or Ar added $Cl_2/CF_4$ were compared, the value of remanent polarization in $O_2$ added $Cl_2/CF_4$ plasma is higher than that in Ar. added plasma. The maximum etch rate of the PZT thin films was 145 nm/min for 30% Ar added $Cl_2/CF_4$ gas having mixing ratio of 8/2 and 110 nm/min for 10% $O_2$ added to that same gas mixture. In order to recover the ferroelectic properties of the PZT thin films after etching, we annealed the etched PZT thin films at $550^{\circ}C$ in an $O_2$ atmosphere for 10 min. From the hysteresis curves, leakage current, retention property and switching polarization, the reduction of the etching damage and the recovery via the annealing was turned out to be more effective when $O_2$ was added to $Cl_2/CF_4$ than Ar. X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed that the structural damage was lower when $O_2$ was added to $Cl_2/CF_4$. And the improvement in the ferroelectric properties of the annealed samples was consistent with the increased intensities of the (100) and the (200) PZT peaks.