• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.492-492
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• 2012

RF biased inductively coupled plasma (ICP) has been widely used in various semiconductor etching processes and laboratory plasma researches. However, almost researches for the RF bias have been focused on the controls of dc self-bias voltages, even though the RF bias can change plasma parameters, such as electron temperature, plasma density, electron energy distribution (EED), and their spatial distributions. In this study, we report on the effect of the RF bias on the plasma parameters and the EEDs with various external parameters, such the RF bias power, the ICP power, the gas pressure, the gas mixture, and the frequency of RF bias. Our study shows the correlation between the RF bias and the plasma parameters and gives a crucial key for the understanding of collisionless electron heating mechanism in the RF biased ICP.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.121-129
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• 2012

RF biased inductively coupled plasma (ICP) is widely used in semiconductor and display etch processes which are based on vacuum science. Up to now, researches on how rf-bias power affects have been focused on the controls of dc self-bias voltages. But, effect of RF bias on plasma parameters which give a crucial role in the processing result and device performance has been little studied. In this work, we studied the correlation between the RF bias and plasma parameters and the recent published results were included in this paper. Plasma density was changed with the RF bias power and this variation can be explained by simple global model. As the RF bias was applied to the ICP, increase in the electron temperature from the electron energy distribution was measured indicating electron heating. Plasma density uniformity was enhanced with the RF bias power. This study can be helpful for the control of the optimum discharge condition, as well as the basic understanding for correlation between the RF bias and plasma parameters.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.210-214
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• 2007

Silicon nanoparticles are widely studied as a material with great potential for wide applications. For application to present industry, it should be easy to control the characteristics of nanoparticle including the size and structure. In this paper, we investigated the formation of Si nanoparticle using pulse plasma technology. Plasma technology is already quite common in device industry and the size of nanoparticle can be easily controlled according to plasma pulse duration. An inductively-coupled plasma chamber with RF power (13.56 MHz) was used with DC-biased grid $(-200\sim+200\;V)$ installed above the substrate. In order to measure the shape and size of nanoparticle, TEM was used. It was found that the size of nanoparticles can be controlled well with the plasma pulse duration and the collection efficiency is increased with the use of either negative or positive DC-bias.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.200-200
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• 2013

기존 메모리 반도체에 비교해 빠른 재생속도와 높은 집적도, 비휘발성 등의 특성을 가지는 MRAM (Magnetic Random Access Memory)은 DRAM, flash memory 등을 대체할 수 있는 차세대 기억 소자로서 CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB로 구성된 한 개의 MTJ (Magnetic Tunnel Junction)를 단위 메모리로 사용한다. 이 MTJ 물질들은 고밀도 플라즈마를 이용한 건식 식각공정시 Cl2, BCl3 등과 같은 chlorine 을 포함한 가스를 이용하여 왔으나 식각 후 sidewall에서 발생하는 부식과 식각 선택비 확보의 어려움 등으로 마스크 물질에 제약을 받고 소자 특성이 감소하게 되는 등의 문제가 있다. 따라서 이러한 식각 문제점을 해결하기 위한 대안으로 noncorrosive 가스인 CO/NH3, CH3OH, CH4 등을 이용한 MTJ 식각 연구가 진행되어 오고 있으며 이중 CO/NH3 혼합가스는 부식성이 없고 hard mask와의 높은 선택비를 가지는 기체로 CO gas에 NH3 gas를 첨가하게 되면 etch rate이 증가하는 특성을 보인다. 또한 rf pulse-biased power를 이용하여 이온의 입사를 시간에 따라 제어함으로써 pulse off time 때 etch gas와 MTJ 물질간의 chemical reaction을 향상시킬 수 있다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 CO/NH3 혼합가스를 이용하여 다양한 rf pulse-biased power 조건에서 MTJ 물질인 CoFeB, MgO와 hard mask 물질인 W을 식각 한 뒤 식각특성을 분석하였으며 MTJ surface의 chemical binding state, surface roughness 측정을 진행하였다. 식각 샘플의 측정은 Alpha step profiler, XPS (X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy), AFM (Atomic Force Microscopy)를 통해 진행되었다. Time-averaged pulse bias에서는 duty ratio가 감소할수록 etch rate의 큰 감소 없이 CoFeB/W, MgO/W 물질의 etch selectivity가 향상됨을 확인할 수 있었으며 pulse off time 구간에서의 chemical reaction 향상으로 인해 식각부산물의 재증착이 감소하고 CoFeB의 surface roughness가 감소하는 것을 확인하였다.