• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2003.03a
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• pp.88-88
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• 2003

Optical Emission Spectroscopy(OES) is a very important technology for real-time monitoring of plasma in a reactor during dry etching process. OES technology is non-invasive to the plasma process. It can be used to collect information on excitation and recombination between electrons and ions in the plasma. It also helps easily diagnose plasma intensity and monitor end-point during plasma etch processing. We studied high density planar inductively coupled BCl$_3$ and BCl$_3$/Ar plasma with an OES as a function of processing pressure, RIE chuck power, ICP source power and gas composition. The scan range of wavelength used was from 400 nm to 1000 nm. It was found that OES peak Intensity was a strong function of ICP source power and processing pressure, while it was almost independent on RIE chuck power in BCl$_3$-based planar ICP processes. It was also worthwhile to note that increase of processing pressure reduced negatively self-induced dc bias. The case was reverse for RIE chuck power. ICP power and gas composition hardly had influence on do bias. We will report OES results of high density planar inductively coupled BCl$_3$ and BCl$_3$/Ar Plasma in detail in this presentation.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.24-28
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• 2005

New post plasma nitriding can achieve a high uniformity that have been difficult in DC nitriding and have a high productivity comparable to gas nitriding. However, it has not a enough high nitriding potential for a rapid nitriding, because surface activation or ion etching in the general plasma nitriding cannot be expected. Thus, in this study, the effects of pre-treatments with oxidation and reduction gas have been investigated to improve the nitriding kinetics of post plasma nitriding. An effective pre-treatment consisting of oxidation and reduction resulted in the increase of surface energy of STD 11. This induced the surface hardness and the effective nitriding depth of STD 11. It is thought that the increase of the surface energy and the surface area with pre-treatment promote the nucleation of nitriding layer.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.49-53
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• 2001

Vortical etching experiments of ($SrBi_2Ta_2O_9$)/Si thin films have been performed by using the inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching (ICP-ME) apparatus. The purposes of these experiments are to get the effective area of vertical surface. Because this technology is very important to get good qualities of ferroelectric gate structure, capacitor and the minimum parasitic effects related to the excellent performances of the FRAM (Ferroelectric Random Access Memory) device. The reacting gases were Ar and $Cl_2$gases, and various $Ar/C1_2$flow ratios were used. The etching experiments were carried out at various RF powers such as 700, 700, 500W and at various DC powers such as 200, 150, 100, 50W, respectively. The maximum etch rate of $SrBi_2Ta_2O_9$/Si thin films was 1050 A/min at the $Ar/C1_2$ gas ratio of 20/16, RF power of 700 W and DC power of 200 W. From the SEM (scanning electron microscopy) image of the SBT thin films, the wall angle was as good as about $82^{\circ}$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.67-67
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• 2009

Due to the scaling down of the dielectrics thickness, the leakage currents arising from electron tunneling through the dielectrics has become the major technical barrier. Thus, much works has focused on the development of high k dielectrics in both cases of memories and CMOS fields. Among the high-k materials, $Al_2O_3$ considered as good candidate has been attracting much attentions, which own some good properties as high dielectric constant k value (~9), a high bandgap (~2eV) and elevated crystallization temperature, etc. Due to the easy control of ion energy and flux, low ownership and simple structure of the inductively coupled plasma (ICP), we chose it for high-density plasma in our study. And the $BCl_3$ was included in the gas due to the effective extraction of oxygen in the form of BClxOy compound. In this study, the etch characteristic of ALD deposited $Al_2O_3$ thin film was investigated in $BCl_3/N_2$ plasma. The experiment were performed by comparing etch rates and selectivity of $Al_2O_3$ over $SiO_2$ as functions of the input plasma parameters such as gas mixing ratio, DC-bias voltage and RF power and process pressure. The maximum etch rate was obtained under 15 mTorr process perssure, 700 W RF power, $BCl_3$(6 sccm)/$N_2$(14 sccm) plasma, and the highest etch selectivity was 1.9. We used the x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to investigate the chemical reactions on the etched surface. The Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) was used for elemental analysis of etched surface.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.642-647
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• 2007

We investigated dry etching of acrylic (PMMA) in $O_2/N_2$ plasmas using a multi-layers electrode reactive ion etching (RIE) system. The multi-layers electrode RIE system had an electrode (or a chuck) consisted of 4 individual layers in a series. The diameter of the electrodes was 150 mm. The etch process parameters we studied were both applied RIE chuck power on the electrodes and % $O_2$ composition in the $N_2/O_2$ plasma mixtures. In details, the RIE chuck power was changed from 75 to 200 W.% $O_2$ in the plasmas was varied from 0 to 100% at the fixed total gas flow rates of 20 sccm. The etch results of acrylic in the multilayers electrode RIE system were characterized in terms of negatively induced dc bias on the electrode, etch rates and RMS surface roughness. Etch rate of acrylic was increased more than twice from about $0.2{\mu}m/min$ to over $0.4{\mu}m/min$ when RIE chuck power was changed from 75 to 200 W. 1 sigma uniformity of etch rate variation of acrylic on the 4 layers electrode was slightly increased from 2.3 to 3.2% when RIE chuck power was changed from 75 to 200 W at the fixed etch condition of 16 sccm $O_2/4\;sccm\;N_2$ gas flow and 100 mTorr chamber pressure. Surface morphology was also investigated using both a surface profilometry and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The RMS roughness of etched acrylic surface was strongly affected by % $O_2$ composition in the $O_2/N_2$ plasmas. However, RIE chuck power changes hardly affected the roughness results in the range of 75-200 W. During etching experiment, Optical Emission Spectroscopy (OES) data was taken and we found both $N_2$ peak (354.27 nm) and $O_2$ peak (777.54 nm). The preliminarily overall results showed that the multi-layers electrode concept could be successfully utilized for high volume reactive ion etching of acrylic in the future.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.244-250
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• 2008

An inductively coupled plasma etching process to replace an existing slower rate reactive ion etching process for $60{\mu}m$ diameter via-holes using Cl2/BCl3 gases has been investigated. Process pressure and platen power were varied at a constant ICP coil power to reproduce the RIE etched $200{\mu}m$ deep via profile, at high etch rate. Desired etch profile was obtained at 40 m Torr pressure, 950 W coil power, 90W platen power with an etch rate ${\sim}4{\mu}m$/min and via etch yield >90% over a 3-inch wafer, using $24{\mu}m$ thick photoresist mask. The etch uniformity and reproducibility obtained for the process were better than 4%. The metallized via-hole dc resistance measured was ${\sim}0.5{\Omega}$ and via inductance value measured was $\sim$83 pH.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.259-259
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• 2008

The LTCC (Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic) technology meets the requirements for high quality microelectronic devices and microsystems application due to a very good electrical and mechanical properties, high reliability and stability as well as possibility of making integrated three dimensional microstructures. The wet process, which has been applied to the etching of the metallic thin film on the ceramic substrate, has multi process steps such as lithography and development and uses very toxic chemicals arising the environmental problems. The other side, Plasma technology like ion beam sputtering is clean process including surface cleaning and treatment, sputtering and etching of semiconductor devices, and environmental cleanup. In this study, metallic multilayer pattern was fabricated by the ion beam etching of Ti/Pd/Cu without the lithography. In the experiment, Alumina and LTCC were used as the substrate and Ti/Pd/Cu metallic multilayer was deposited by the DC-magnetron sputtering system. After the formation of Cu/Ni/Au multilayer pattern made by the photolithography and electroplating process, the Ti/Pd/Cu multilayer was dry-etched by using the low energy-high current ion-beam etching process. Because the electroplated Au layer was the masking barrier of the etching of Ti/Pd/Cu multilayer, the additional lithography was not necessary for the etching process. Xenon ion beam which having the high sputtering yield was irradiated and was used with various ion energy and current. The metallic pattern after the etching was optically examined and analyzed. The rate and phenomenon of the etching on each metallic layer were investigated with the diverse process condition such as ion-beam acceleration energy, current density, and etching time.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.211-220
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• 2002

This study characterizes an oxide etching process in a magnetically enhanced reactive ion etching (MERIE) reactor with a $CHF_3/CF_4$ gas chemistry. We use a statistical $2^{4-1}$ experimental design plus one center point to characterize the relationships between the process factors and etch responses. The factors that we varied in the design include RF power, pressure, and gas composition, and the modeled etch responses were the etch rate, etch selectivity to TiN, and uniformity. The developed models produced 3D response plots. Etching of $SiO_2$ mainly depends on F density and ion bombardment. $SiO_2$ etch selectivity to TiN sensitively depends on the F density in the plasma and the effects of ion bombardment. The process conditions for a high etch selectivity are a 0.3 to 0.5 $CF_4$ flow ratio and a -600 V to -650 V DC bias voltage according to the process pressure in our experiment. Etching uniformity was improved with an increase in the $CF_4$ flow ratio in the gas mixture, an increase in the source power, and a higher pressure. Our characterization of via etching in a $CHF_3/CF_4$ MERIE using neural networks was successful, economical, and effective. The results provide highly valuable information about etching mechanisms and optimum etching conditions.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.1305-1308
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• 2003

A new technique is presented to construct a predictive model of plasma etch process. This was accomplished by combining a backpropagation neural network (BPNN) and a genetic algorithm (GA). The predictive model constructed in this way is referred to as a GA-BPNN. The GA played a role of controlling training factors simultaneously. The training factors to be optimized are the hidden neuron, training tolerance, initial weight magnitude, and two gradients of bipolar sigmoid and linear functions. Each etch response was optimized separately. The proposed scheme was evaluated with a set of experimental plasma etch data. The etch process was characterized by a $2^3$ full factorial experiment. The etch responses modeled are aluminum (A1) etch rate, silica profile angle, A1 selectivity, and dc bias. Additional test data were prepared to evaluate model appropriateness. The GA-BPNN was compared to a conventional BPNN. Compared to the BPNN, the GA-BPNN demonstrated an improvement of more than 20% for all etch responses. The improvement was significant in the case of A1 etch rate.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.190-194
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• 2002

In this study, the etching of Au thin films have been performed in an inductively coupled CF4/Cl2/Ar plasma. The etch properties were measured as the CF4 adds from 0 % to 30 % to the Cl2/(Cl2 + Ar) gas mixing ratio of 0.2. Other parameters were fixed at a rf power of 700 W, a dc bias voltage of 150 V, a chamber pressure of 15 mTorr, and a substrate temperature of $30^{\circ}C$. The highest etch rate of the Au thin film was 370 nm/min at a 10 % additive CF4 into Cl2/(Cl2 + Ar) gas mixing ratio of 0.2. The surface reaction of the etched Au thin films was investigated using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. From x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis, the intensities of Au peaks are changed. There is a chemical reaction between Cl and Au. Au-Cl is hard to remove on the surface because of its high melting point and the etching products can be sputtered by Ar ion bombardment. We obtained the cleaned and steep profile.