• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2008

ZnS is an attractive material for future optical and electrical devices since it has a direct and wide band gap to provide blue emission at room temperature. In this study, inductively coupled $BCl_3/Ar$ plasma was used to etch ZnS:Mn thin films. The maximum etch rate of 164.2 nm/min for ZnS:Mn was obtained at a $BCl_3(20)/Ar(80)$ gas mixing ratio, an rf power of 700 W, a dc bias voltage of -200V, a total gas flow of 20 sccm, and a chamber pressure of 1Pa. The etch behaviors of ZnS:Mn thin films under various plasma parameters showed that the ZnS:Mn were effectively removed by the chemically assisted physical etching mechanism. The surface reaction of the ZnS:Mn thin films was investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The XPS analysis revealed that Mn had detected on the surface ZnS:Mn etched in $BCl_3/Ar$ plasma.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.390-390
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• 2012

Information technology industries has grown rapidly and demanded alternative memories for the next generation. The most popular random access memory, dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), has many advantages as a memory, but it could not meet the demands from the current of developed industries. One of highlighted alternative memories is magnetic random-access memory (MRAM). It has many advantages like low power consumption, huge storage, high operating speed, and non-volatile properties. MRAM consists of magnetic-tunnel-junction (MTJ) stack which is a key part of it and has various magnetic thin films like CoFeB, FePt, IrMn, and so on. Each magnetic thin film is difficult to be etched without any damages and react with chemical species in plasma. For improving the etching process, a high density plasma etching process was employed. Moreover, the previous etching gases were highly corrosive and dangerous. Therefore, the safety etching gases are needed to be developed. In this research, the etch characteristics of CoFeB magnetic thin films were studied by using an inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching in $CH_4/O_2/Ar$ gas mixes. TiN thin films were used as a hardmask on CoFeB thin films. The concentrations of $O_2$ in $CH_4/O_2/Ar$ gas mix were varied, and then, the rf coil power, gas pressure, and dc-bias voltage. The etch rates and the selectivity were obtained by a surface profiler and the etch profiles were observed by a field emission scanning electron microscopy. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was employed to reveal the etch mechanism.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers P
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• v.59 no.4
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• pp.417-422
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• 2010

Atmosphere Plasma of Gas Discharge (APGD) has been used in plasma sources for material processing such as etching, deposition, surface modification and so on due to having no thermal damages. The APGD researches on AC source with high frequency have been mainly processed. However, DC APGD studies have been not. In order to understand APGD further, it is necessary to study on fundamental properties of DC APGD. In this paper, we developed a one-dimensional fluid simulation model with capacitively coupled plasma chamber at the atmosphere pressure (760 [Torr]). Nine kinds of Ar discharge particles such as electron (e), positive ions ($Ar^+$, $Ar_2^+$) and neutral particles ($Ar_m^*$, $Ar_r^*$, $Ar_h^*$, $Ar_2^*$(1), $Ar_2^*$(3) and Ar gas) are considered in the computation. The simulation was worked at the current range of 1~15 [mA]. The characteristics of voltage-current were calculated and the structure of Joule heating were discussed. The spatial distributions of Ar DC APGD and the mechanism of power consumption were also investigated.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2000.07a
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• pp.938-941
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• 2000

SrBi$_2$Ta$_2$$O_{9}$(SBT) thin films were etched in Ar/SF$_{6}$ and Ar/CHF$_3$gas plasma using magnetically enhanced inductively coupled plasma(MEICP) system. The etch rates of SBT thin film were 1500$\AA$/min in SF$_{6}$/Ar and 1650 $\AA$/min in Ar/CHF$_3$at a rf power of 600W a dc-bias voltage of -l50V. a chamber pressure of 10 mTorr. In order to examine the chemical reactions on the etched SBT thin film surface , x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) were examined. In etching SBT thin film with F-base gas plasma, M(Sr. Bi. Ta)-O bonds are broken by Ar ion bombardment and form SrFand TaF$_2$ by chemical reaction with F. SrF and TaF$_2$are removed more easily by Ar ion bombardmentrdment

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.5-12
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• 2004

The enhancement of adhesion for Cu film on polycarbonate (PC) surface with the $Ar/O_2$ gas plasma treatment and dc-bias sputtering was studied. The plasma treatment with this reactive mixture changes the chemical property of PC surface into hydrophllic one, which is shown by the variation of contact angle with surface modification. The micro surface roughness that also gives the high adhesive environment is increased by the $Ar/O_2$ gas plasma treatment. These results were observed distinctly from the atomic force microscopy (AFM). The negative substrate dc-bias effect for the Cu adhesion on PC was also investifated. Accelerated $Ar^{+}$ lons in sheath area of anode bombard the bare surface of PC during initial stage of dc bias sputtering. PC substrate. therefore, has severe roughen and hydrophilic surface due to the physical etching process with more activated functional group. As dc-bias sputtering process proceeds, morphology of Cu film shows better step coverage and dense layer. The results of peel test show the evidence of superiority of bias sputtering for the adhesion between metal Cu and PC.C.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2013

In this paper, we investigated the etching characteristics of the TaN thin films and the surface reaction of TaN thin films after etching process. The etching characteristics of the TaN thin films were carried out using inductively coupled plasma (ICP). The etch rate and the selectivity of TaN to $SiO_2$ and TaN to PR were measured by varying the gas mixing ratio, RF power, DC-bias voltage, and process pressure in CF-based plasma. The surface reaction of TaN thin films were determined by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.162-171
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• 2021

Dry etching of copper thin films is performed using high density plasma of ethylenediamine (EDA)/hexafluoroisopropanol (HFIP)/Ar gas mixture. The etch rates, etch selectivities and etch profiles of the copper thin films are improved by adding HFIP to EDA/Ar gas. As the EDA/HFIP concentration in EDA/HFIP/Ar increases, the etch rate of copper thin films decreases, whereas the etch profile is improved. In the EDA/HFIP/Ar gas mixture, the optimal ratio of EDA to HFIP is investigated. In addition, the etch parameters including ICP source power, dc-bias voltage, process pressure are varied to examine the etch characteristics. Optical emission spectroscopy results show that among all species, [CH], [CN] and [H] are the main species in the EDA/HFIP/Ar plasma. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results indicate the formation of CuCN compound and C-N-H-containing polymers during the etching process, leading to a good etch profile. Finally, anisotropic etch profiles of the copper thin films patterned with 150 nm scale are obtained in EDA/HFIP/Ar gas mixture.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2003.05c
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• pp.182-185
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• 2003

Etching characteristics of (PB,Sr)$TiO_3$(PST) thin films Were investigated using inductively coupled chlorine based plasma system as functions of gas mixing ratio, RF power and DC bias voltage. It was found that increasing of Ar content in gas mixture' lead to sufficient increasing of etch rate and selectivity of PST to Pt. The maximum etch rate of PST film is 562 ${\AA}$/min and the selectivity of PST film to Pt is 0.8 at $Cl_2/(Cl_2+Ar)$ of 20 %. 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.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.531-536
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• 2005

Inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching of CoTb and CoZrNb magnetic materials with the photoresist mask was performed using $Cl_2/Ar$ and $C_2F_6/Ar$ gas mixtures and characterized in terms of etch rate and etch profile. As the concentrations of $Cl_2$ and $C_2F_6$ gases increased, the etch rates of magnetic films decreased and the etch slopes became slanted. The $Cl_2/Ar$ gas was more effective in obtaining fast etch rate and steep sidewall slope than the $C_2F_6/Ar$ gas. As the coil rf power and dc bias increased, fast etch rate and steep etch slope were obtained but the redeposition on the sidewall was observed. This is due to the increase of ion and radical densities in plasma with increasing the coil rf power and the increase of incident ion energy to the substrate with increasing the dc bias voltage. By applying high density reactive ion etching to magnetic tunnel junction stack containing various magnetic films and metal oxide, steep etch slope and clean etch profile without redeposition were obtained.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.74-74
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• 2009

Titanium nitride has been used as hardmask for semiconductor process, capacitor of MIM type and diffusion barrier of DRAM, due to it's low resistivity, thermodynamic stability and diffusion coefficient. Characteristics of the TiN film are high intensity and chemical stability. The TiN film also has compatibility with high-k material. This study is an experimental test for better condition of TiN film etching process. The etch rate of TiN film was investigated about etching in $BCl_3/Ar/O_2$ plasma using the inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching system. The base condition were 4 sccm $BCl_3$ /16 sccm Ar mixed gas and 500 W the RF power, -50 V the DC bias voltage, 10 mTorr the chamber pressure and $40\;^{\circ}C$ the substrate temperature. We added $O_2$ gas to give affect etch rate because $O_2$ reacts with photoresist easily. We had changed $O_2$ gas flow rate from 2 sccm to 8 sccm, the RF power from 500 W to 800 W, the DC bias voltage from -50 V to -200 V, the chamber pressure from 5 mTorr to 20 mTorr and the substrate temperature from $20\;^{\circ}C$ to $80\;^{\circ}C$.