• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.126-131
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• 2007

In this paper, we fabricated piezoresistive pressure sensor with dry etching technology which used ICP-RIE (inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching) and etching delay technology which used SOI (silicon-on-insulator). Structure of the fabricated pressure sensor shows a square diaphragm connected to a frame which was vertically fabricated by dry etching process and a single-element four-terminal gauge arranged at diaphragm edge. Sensitivity of the fabricated sensor was about 3.5 mV/V kPa at 1 kPa full-scale. Measurable resolution of the sensor was not exceeding 20 Pa. The nonlinearity of the fabricated pressure sensor was less than 0.5 %F.S.O. at 1 kPa full-scale.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.266-270
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• 2003

We studied BCl$_3$ dry etching of GaAs in a planar inductively coupled plasma system. The investigated process parameters were planar ICP source power, chamber pressure, RIE chuck power and gas flow rate. The ICP source power was varied from 0 to 500 W. Chamber pressure, RIE chuck power and gas flow rate were controlled from 5 to 15 mTorr, 0 to 150 W and 10 to 40 sccm, respectively. We found that a process condition at 20 sccm $BCl_3$ 300 W ICP, 100 W RIE and 7.5 mTorr chamber pressure gave an excellent etch result. The etched GaAs feature depicted extremely smooth surface (RMS roughness < 1 nm), vertical sidewall, relatively fast etch rate (> $3000\AA$/min) and good selectivity to a photoresist (> 3 : 1). XPS study indicated a very clean surface of the material after dry etching of GaAs. We also noticed that our planar ICP source was successfully ignited both with and without RIE chuck power, which was generally not the case with a typical cylindrical ICP source, where assistance of RIE chuck power was required for turning on a plasma and maintaining it. It demonstrated that the planar ICP source could be a very versatile tool for advanced dry etching of damage-sensitive compound semiconductors.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.328-329
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• 2012

$SF_6$ gas는 반도체 및 디스플레이 제조공정 중 Dry etch과정에서 널리 사용되는 gas로 자연적으로 존재하는 것이 아닌 사용 목적에 맞춰 인위적으로 제조된 gas이다. 디스플레이 산업에서 $SF_6$ gas가 사용되는 Dry etch 공정은 주로 ${\alpha}$-Si, $Si_3N_4$ 등 Si계열의 박막을 etch하는데 사용된다. 이러한 Si 계열의 박막을 식각하기 위해서는 fluorine, Chlorine 등이 사용된다. fluorine계열의 gas로는 $SF_6$ gas가 대표적이다. 하지만 $SF_6$ gas는 대표적인 온실가스로 지구 온난화의 주범으로 주목받고 있다. 세계적으로 온실가스의 규제에 대한 움직임이 활발하고, 대한민국은 2020년까지 온실가스 감축목표를 '배출전망치(BAU)대비 30% 감축으로' 발표하였다. 따라서 디스플레이 및 반도체 공정에는 GWP (Global warming Potential)에 적용 가능한 대체 가스의 연구가 필요한 상황이다. 온실가스인 $SF_6$를 대체하기 위한 방법으로 GWP가 낮은 $C_3F_6$가스를 이용하여 $Si_3N_4$를 Dry etching 방법인 RIE (Reactive Ion Etching)공정을 한 후 배출되는 가스를 측정하였다. 4인치 P-type 웨이퍼 위에 PECVD (Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition)장비를 이용하여 $Si_3N_4$를 200 nm 증착하였고, Photolithography공정을 통해 Patterning을 한 후 RIE공정을 수행하였다. RIE는 Power : 300 W, Flow rate : 30 sccm, Time : 15 min, Temperature : $15^{\circ}C$, Pressure : Open과 같은 조건으로 공정을 수행하였다. 그리고 SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope)장비를 이용하여 Etching된 단면을 관찰하여 단차를 확인하였다. 또한 Etching 전후 배출가스를 포집하여 GC-MS (Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrophotometry)를 측정 및 비교하였다. Etching 전의 경우에는 $N_2$, $O_2$ 등의 가스가 검출되었고, $C_3F_6$ 가스를 이용해 etching 한 후의 경우에는 $C_3F_6$ 계열의 가스가 검출되었다.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2001.05a
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• pp.112-112
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• 2001

• 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.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2008

In this paper, we fabricated pressure difference type gas flow sensor using only dry etching technology by ICP-RIE(inductive coupled plasma reactive ion etching). The sensor's structure consists of a common shear stress type piezoresistive pressure sensor with an orifice fabricated in the middle of the sensor diaphragm. Generally, structure like diaphragm is fabricated by wet etching technology using TMAH, but we fabricated diaphragm by only dry etching using ICP-RIE. To equalize the thickness of diaphragm we applied insulator($SiO_2$) layer of SOI(Si/$SiO_2$/Si-sub) wafer as delay layer of dry etching. Size of fabricated diaphragm is $1000{\times}1000{\times}7\;{\mu}m^3$ and overall chip $3000{\times}3000{\times}7\;{\mu}m^3$. We measured the variation of output voltage toward the change of gas pressure to analyze characteristics of the fabricated sensor. Sensitivity of fabricated sensor was relatively high as about 1.5mV/V kPa at 1kPa full-scale. Nonlinearity was below 0.5%F.S. Over-pressure range of the fabricated sensor is 100kPa or more.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.299-304
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• 2004

In recent years, silicon carbide has emerged as an important material for MEMS application. In order to fabricate an SiC film based MEMS structure by using chemical etching method, high operating temperature is required due to high chemical stability Therefore, dry etching using plasma is the best solution. SiC film was deposited by thermal CVD at the temperature of 100$0^{\circ}C$ and pressure of 10 torr. SiC was dry etched with a reactive ion etching (RIE) system, using SF$_{6}$/O$_2$ and CF$_4$/O$_2$ gas mixture. Etch rate has been investigated as a function of oxygen concentration in the gas mixture, rf power, working pressure and gas flow rate. Etch rate was measured by surface profiler and FE-SEM. SF$_{6}$/O$_2$ gas mixture showed higher etch rate than CF$_4$/O$_2$ gas mixture. Maximum etch rate appeared at RF Power of 450W. $O_2$ dilute mixtures resulted in an increasing of etch rate up to 40％, and the superior anisotropic cross section was observe

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2003.07b
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• pp.868-871
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• 2003

In recent years, silicon carbide has emerged as an important material for MEMS application. In order to fabricate an SiC film based MEMS structure by using chemical etching method, high operating temperature is required due to high chemical stability. Therefore, dry etching using plasma is the best solution. SiC film was deposited by thermal CVD at the temperature of $1000^{\circ}C$ and pressure of 10 torr. SiC was dry etched with a reactive ion etching (RIE) system, using $SF_6/O_2$ and $CF_4/O_2$ gas mixture. Etch rate have been investigated as a function of oxygen concentration in the gas mixture, RF power, and working pressure. Etch rate was measured by surface profiler and FE-SEM. $SF_6/O_2$ gas mixture has been shown high etch rate than $CF_4/O_2$ gas mixture. Maximum etch rate appeared at 450W of RF power. $O_2$ dilute mixtures resulted in an increasing of etch rate up to 40%, and the superior anisotropic cross section was observed.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.649-653
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• 2010

In this paper, double texturization of multi crystalline silicon solar cells was studied with laser and reactive ion etching (RIE). In the case of multi crystalline silicon wafers, chemical etching has problems in producing a uniform surface texture. Thus various etching methods such as laser and dry texturization have been studied for multi crystalline silicon wafers. In this study, laser texturization with an Nd:$YVO_4$ green laser was performed first to get the proper hole spacing and $300{\mu}m$ was found to be the most proper value. Laser texturization on crystalline silicon wafers was followed by damage removal in acid solution and RIE to achieve double texturization. This study showed that double texturization on multi crystalline silicon wafers with laser firing and RIE resulted in lower reflectance, higher quantum yield and better efficiency than that process without RIE. However, RIE formed sharp structures on the silicon wafer surfaces, which resulted in 0.8% decrease of fill factor at solar cell characterization. While chemical etching makes it difficult to obtain a uniform surface texture for multi crystalline silicon solar cells, the process of double texturization with laser and RIE yields a uniform surface structure, diminished reflectance, and improved efficiency. This finding lays the foundation for the study of low-cost, high efficiency multi crystalline silicon solar cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2003.07a
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• pp.31-36
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• 2003

We investigated dry etching of GaAs and AlGaAs in a high density planar inductively coupled plasma system with $BCl_3$ and $BCl_3/Ar$ gas chemistry. A detailed process study as a function of ICP source power, RIE chuck power and $BCl_3/Ar$ mixing ratio was performed. At this time, chamber pressure was fixed at 7.5 mTorr. 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 RE chuck power. It was also found that etch rate of GaAs in $BCl_3$ gas with 25% Ar addition was superior to that of GaAs in a pure $BCl_3$ (20 sccm $BCl_3$) plasma. The result was same with AlGaAs. We expect that high ion-assisted effect in $BCl_3$/Ar plasma increased etch rates of both materials. The GaAs and AIGaAs 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.