• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.144-148
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• 2012

In this work, we investigated to the etching characteristics of $TiO_2$ thin film and the selectivity using the inductively coupled plasma system. The etch rate and the selectivity were obtained with various gas mixing ratios. The maximum etch rate of $TiO_2$ thin film was 61.6 nm/min. The selectivity of $TiO_2$ to TiN, and $TiO_2$ to $SiO_2$ were obtained as 2.13 and 1.39, respectively. The etching process conditions are 400 W for RF power, -150 V for DC-bias voltage, 2 Pa for the process pressure, and $40^{\circ}C$ for substrate temperature. The chemical states of the etched surfaces were investigated with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Its analysis showed that the etching mechanism was based on the physical and chemical pathways in the ion-assisted physical reaction.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.98-103
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• 2016

The dry etching characteristics of SnO thin films were investigated using inductively coupled plasma (ICP) in Ar, $CF_4$, $Cl_2$ chemistries. the SnO thin films were deposited by reactive rf magnetron sputtering with Sn metal target. In order to study the etching rates of SnO, the processing factors of processing pressure, source power, bias power, and etching gas were controlled. The etching behavior of SnO films under various conditions was obtained and discussed by comparing to that of $SiO_2$ films. In our results, the etch rate of SnO film was obtained as 94nm/min. The etch rates were mainly affected by physical etching and the contribution of chemical etching to SnO films appeared relatively week.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.26 no.11
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• pp.826-830
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• 2013

In this paper, we carried out the investigations of both etch characteristics and mechanisms for the $SnO_2$ thin films in $O_2/BCl_3/Ar$ plasma. The dry etching characteristics of the $SnO_2$ thin films was studied by varying the $O_2/BCl_3/Ar$ gas mixing ratio. We determined the optimized process conditions that were as follows: a RF power of 700 W, a DC-bias voltage of - 150 V, and a process pressure of 2 Pa. The maximum etch rate was 509.9 nm/min in $O_2/BCl_3/Ar$=(3:4:16 sccm) plasma. From XPS analysis, the etch mechanism of the $SnO_2$ thin films in the $O_2/BCl_3/Ar$ plasma can be identified as the ion-assisted chemical reaction while the role of ion bombardment includes the destruction of the metal-oxide bonds as well as the cleaning of the etched surface form the reaction products.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2003.07b
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• pp.892-895
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• 2003

This paper describes on RIE(Reactive Ion Etching) characteristics of 3C-SiC(Silicon Carbide) grown on Si(100) wafers. During RIE of 3C-SiC films in this work, $CHF_3$ gas is used to form of polymer as a side wall for excellent anisotropy etching. From this process, etch rates are obtained a $60{\sim}980{\AA}/min$ by various conditions such as $CHF_3$ gas flux, $O_2$ addition ratio, RF power and electrode distance. Also, approximately $40^{\circ}$ mesa structures are successfully formed at 100 mTorr $CHF_3$ gas flow ratio, 200 W RF power and 30 mm electrode distance. Moreover, vertical side wall is fabricated by anisotropy etching with 50% $O_2$ addition ratio and 25 mm electrode distance. Therefore, RIE of 3C-SiC films using $CHF_3$ could be applicable as fabrication process technology for high-temperature 3C-SiC MEMS applications.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.473-474
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• 2008

This paper proposes that the relative transmittance and emission intensity measured via optical emission spectroscopy (OES) is a useful for fault detection of reactive ion etch process. With the increased requests for non-invasive as well as real-time plasma process monitoring for fault detection and classification (FDC), OES is suggested as a useful diagnostic tool that satisfies both of the requirements. Relative optical transmittance and emission intensity of oxygen plasma acquired from various process conditions are directly compared with the process variables, such as RF power, oxygen flow and chamber pressure. The changes of RF power and Pressure are linearly proportional to the emission intensity while the change of gas flow can be detected with the relative transmittance.

• Solar Energy
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.125-131
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• 1999

This paper deals with a novel structure of poly-Si solar cell. A grain boundary(GB) of poly-Si acts as potential barrier and recombination center for photo-generated carriers. To reduce unwanted side effects at the GB of poly-Si, we employed physical GB removal of poly-Si using chemical solutions. Various chemical etchants such as Sirtl, Yang, Secco, and Schimmel were investigated for the preferential GB etching. Etch depth about 10 ${\mu}m$ was achieved by a Schimmel etchant. After a chemical etching of poly-Si, we used $POCl_3$ for emitter junction formation. This paper used an easy method of top electrode formation using a RF sputter grown ITO film. ITO films with thickness of 300 nm showed resistivity of $1.26{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}-cm$ and overall transmittance above 80%. Using a preferential GB etching and ITO top electrode, we developed a new fabrication procedure of poly-Si solar cells. Employing optimized process conditions, we were able to achieve conversion efficiency as high as 16.6% at an input power of 20 $mW/cm^2$. This paper investigates the effects of process parameters: etching conditions, ITO deposition factors, and emitter doping densities in a poly-Si cell fabrication procedure.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.327-335
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• 1993

Using a RF cylindrical magnetron operated with two electromagnets having a Helmholz configuration, RF magnetron plasma properties and characteristics of reactive ion ething of Si were investigated as a function of applied magnetic field strengths using 3mTorr $CF_4/H_2$ and $CHF_3$. Also, I-V characteristics of Schottky diodes, which were made of silicons etched under different applied magnetic field strengths and gas environments, were measured to investigate the degree of radiation damage during the reactive ion etching. As the magnetic field strent;th increased, ion densities and radical densities of the plasmas were increased linearly, however, the dc self-bias voltages induced on the powered electrode, where the specimen are located, were decreased exponentially. Maximum etch rates, which were 5 times faster than that etched without applied magnetic filed, were obtained using near lOOGauss, and, under these conditions, little or no radiation damages on the etched silicons were found.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.07a
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• pp.1038-1041
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• 2003

In the paper, we investigated silicon surface microstructures formed by reactive ion etching in hollow cathode system. Wet anisotropic chemical etching technique use to form random pyramidal structure on <100> silicon wafers usually is not effective in texturing of low-cost multicrystalline silicon wafers because of random orientation nature, but High density hollow cathode plasma system illustrates high deposition rate, better film crystal structure, improved etching characteristics. The etched silicon surface is covered by columnar microstructures with diameters form 50 to 100nm and depth of about 500nm. We used $SF_{6}$ and $O_{2}$ gases in HCP dry etch process. This paper demonstrates very high plasma density of $2{\times}10^{12}$ $cm^{-3}$ at a discharge current of 20 mA. Silicon etch rate of 1.3 ${\mu}s/min$. was achieved with $SF_{6}/O_{2}$ plasma conditions of total gas pressure=50 mTorr, gas flow rate=40 sccm, and rf power=200 W. Our experimental results can be used in various display systems such as thin film growth and etching for TFT-LCDs, emitter tip formations for FEDs, and bright plasma discharge for PDP applications. In this paper we directed our study to the silicon etching properties such as high etching rate, large area uniformity, low power with the high density plasma.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.38 no.12
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• pp.8-13
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• 2001

Cerium oxide ($CeO_2$) thin film has been proposed as a buffer layer between the ferroelectric thin film and the Si substrate in Metal-Ferroelectric-Insulator-Silicon (MFIS) structures for ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM) applications. In this study, $CeO_2$ thin films were etched with $Cl_2$/Ar gas mixture in an inductively coupled plasma (ICP). Etch properties were measured for different gas mixing ratio of $Cl_2$($Cl_2$+Ar) while the other process conditions were fixed at RF power (600 W), dc bias voltage (-200 V), and chamber pressure (15 mTorr). The highest etch rate of $CeO_2$ thin film was 230 ${\AA}$/min and the selectivity of $CeO_2$ to $YMnO_3$ was 1.83 at $Cl_2$($Cl_2$+Ar gas mixing ratio of 0.2. The surface reaction of the etched $CeO_2$ thin films was investigated using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. There is a Ce-Cl bonding by chemical reaction between Ce and Cl. The results of secondary ion mass spectrometer (SIMS) analysis were compared with the results of XPS analysis and the Ce-Cl bonding was monitored at 176.15 (a.m.u). These results confirm that Ce atoms of $CeO_2$ thin films react with chlorine and a compound such as CeCl remains on the surface of etched $CeO_2$ thin films. These products can be removed by Ar ion bombardment.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.75-79
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• 2017

Honeycomb-shaped Ag-grid transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs) were fabricated using two different processes, high density plasma etching and lift-off, and the optical and electrical properties were compared according to the fabrication method. For the fabrication of the Ag-grid TCEs by plasma etching, etch characteristics of the Ag thin film in $10CF_4/5Ar$ inductively coupled plasma (ICP) discharges were studied. The Ag etch rate increased as the power increased at relatively low ICP source power or rf chuck power conditions, and then decreased at higher powers due to either decrease in $Ar^+$ ion energy or $Ar^+$ ion-assisted removal of the reactive F radicals. The Ag-grid TCEs fabricated by the $10CF_4/5Ar$ ICP etching process showed better grid pattern transfer efficiency without any distortion or breakage in the grid pattern and higher optical transmittance values of average 83.3 % (pixel size $30{\mu}m/line$ width $5{\mu}m$) and 71 % (pixel size $26{\mu}m/line$ width $8{\mu}m$) in the visible range of spectrum, respectively. On the other hand, the Ag-grid TCEs fabricated by the lift-off process showed lower sheet resistance values of $2.163{\Omega}/{\square}$ (pixel size $26{\mu}m/line$ width $18{\mu}m$) and $4.932{\Omega}/{\square}$ (pixel size $30{\mu}m/line$ width $5{\mu}m$), respectively.