• Clean Technology
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.280-286
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• 2012

The dry etching of sacrificial $SiO_2$ was performed in supercritical carbon dioxide. The etching of boron phosphor silica glass (BPSG), tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS), thermal $SiO_2$, and Si-nitride (SiN) was investigated by using a two chamber system with HF/py etchant and alcohol additives. The etch rate of sacrificial $SiO_2$ increased upon the addition of methanol. The etch selectivity of BPSG with respect to SiN was highest with IPA although the highest etch rate was resulted from methanol except BPSG. The etch rate increased with the temperature in HF/py/MeOH system. Especially the increase of the etch rate was much higher for BPSG with an increase in the reaction temperature. The etch residue was not reduced apparently upon the addition of alcohol cosolvents to HF/py. While the etch rate in HF/$H_2O$ was higher than HF/py/alcohol system, the rate decreased with the addition of alcohols to HF/$H_2O$. The cantilever beam structure of high aspect ratios was released by the dry ething in supercritical carbon dioxide without damage.

• The Magazine of the IEIE
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• v.28 no.8
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• pp.35-41
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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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.136.2-136.2
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• 2015

반도체 제조는 chip의 성능 향상 및 단가 하락을 위해 지속적으로 pattern size가 nano size로 감소해 왔고, capacitor 용량은 증가해 왔다. 이러한 현상은 contact hole의 aspect ratio를 지속적으로 증가시킨바, 그에 따라 최적의 HARC (high aspect ratio contact)을 확보하는 적합한 dry etch process가 필수적이다. 그러나 HARC dry etch process는 많은 critical plasma properties 에 의존하는 매우 복잡한 공정이다. 따라서, critical plasma properties를 적절히 조절하여 higher aspect ratio, higher etch selectivity, tighter critical dimension control, lower P2ID과 같은 plasma characteristics을 확보하는 것이 요구된다. 현재 critical plasma properties를 제어하기 위해 다양한 plasma etching 방법이 연구 되어왔다. 이 중 plasma를 낮은 kHz의 frequency에서 on/off 하는 pulsed plasma etching technique은 nanoscale semiconductor material의 etch 특성을 효과적으로 향상 시킬 수 있다. 따라서 본 실험에서는 dual-frequency capacitive coupled plasma (DF-CCP)을 사용하여 plasma operation 동안 duty ratio와 pulse frequency와 같은 pulse parameters를 적용하여 plasma의 특성을 각각 제어함으로써 etch selectivity와 uniformity를 향상 시키고자 하였다. Selective SiO2 contact etching을 위해 top electrode에는 60 MHz pulsed RF source power를, bottom electrode에는 2MHz pulse plasma를 인가하여 synchronously pulsed dual-frequency capacitive coupled plasma (DF-CCP)에서의 plasma 특성과 dual pulsed plasma의 sync. pulsing duty ratio의 영향에 따른 etching 특성 등을 연구 진행하였다. 또한 emissive probe를 통해 전자온도, OES를 통한 radical 분석으로 critical Plasma properties를 분석하였고 SEM을 통한 etch 특성분석과 XPS를 통한 표면분석도 함께 진행하였다. 그 결과 60%의 source duty percentage와 50%의 bias duty percentage에서 가장 향상된 etch 특성을 얻을 수 있었다.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.116-119
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• 2010

The etching characteristics of zinc oxide (ZnO) were investigated, including the etch rate and the selectivity of ZnO in a $Cl_2/BCl_3$/Ar plasma. It was found that the ZnO etch rate, the RF power, and the gas pressure showed non-monotonic behaviors with an increasing Cl2 fraction in the $Cl_2/BCl_3$/Ar plasma, a gas mixture of $Cl_2$(3 sccm)/$BCl_3$(16 sccm)/Ar (4 sccm) resulted in a maximum ZnO etch rate of 53 nm/min and a maximum etch selectivity of 0.89 for ZnO/$SiO_2$. We used atomic force microscopy to determine the roughness of the surface. Based on these data, the ion-assisted chemical reaction was proposed as the main etch mechanism for the plasmas. Due to the relatively low volatility of the by-products formed during etching with $Cl_2/BCl_3$/Ar plasma, ion bombardment and physical sputtering were required to obtain the high ZnO etch rate. The chemical states of the etched surfaces were investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). This data suggested that the ZnO etch mechanism was due to ion enhanced chemical etching.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 1999.06a
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• pp.922-925
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• 1999

The Silylation photo-resist etch process was tested by Enhanced-ICP dry etcher. The comparison of the two process results of micro pattern etching with 0.25${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ CD by E-ICP and ICP reveals that E-ICP has better quality than ICP The etch rate and the microloading effect was improved in E-ICP Especially, the problem of the lateral etch was improved in E-ICP.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.22 no.12
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• pp.1005-1008
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• 2009

In this study, adaptively coupled plasma (ACP) source was used for dry etching of $Al_2O_3$ thin film. During the etching process, the wafer surface temperature is an important parameter to influent the etching characteristics. Therefore, the experiments were carried out in ACP to measuring the etch rate, the selectivities of $Al_2O_3$ thin film to mask materials and the etch profile as functions of $Cl_2$/Ar gas ratio and substrate temperature. The highest etch rate of $Al_2O_3$ was 65.4 nm/min at 75% of $Cl_2/(Cl_2+Ar)$ gas mixing ratio. The etched profile was characterized using field effect scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The chemical states of $Al_2O_3$ thin film surfaces were investigated with x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.151-156
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• 2006

A method for fabrication of nano-scale GaN structure by inductively coupled plasma etching is proposed, exploiting a thermal dewetting of Pt thin film as an etch mask. The nano-scale Pt metal islands were formed by the dewetting of 2-dimensional film on $SiO_2$ dielectric materials during rapid thermal annealing process. For the case of 30 nm thick Pt films, pattern formation and dewetting was initiated at temperatures greater $600^{\circ}C$. Controlling the annealing temperature and time as well as the thickness of the Pt metal film affected the size and density of Pt islands. The activation energy for the formation of Pt metal island was calculated to be 23.2 KJ/mole. The islands show good resistance to dry etching by a $CF_4$ based plasma for dielectric etching indicating that the metal islands produced by dewetting are suitable for use as an etch mask in the fabrication of nano-scale structures.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.183-186
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• 2004

The dry etch behavior of PZT thin films was investigated in $BCl_3/N_2$ plasma. The experiments were carried out with measuring etch rates and selectivities of PZT to $SiO_2$ as a function of gas concentration and input rf power, chamber pressure. The maximum etch rate was 126 nm/min when 30% $N_2$ was added to $BCl_3$ chemistry. Also, as input rf power increases, the etch rate of PZT thin films was increased. Langmuir probe measurement showed the noticeable influence of $BCl_3/N_2$ mixing ratio on electron temperature and electron density as input rf power increased. The variation of Cl radical density as plasma parameters changed was examined by Optical Emission Spectroscopy (OES) analysis. According to X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, PZT thin films were damaged in plasma and an increase in (100), (200) and (111) phases showed the improvement in structure of the PZT thin films after the $O_2$ annealing process.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.102-105
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• 2001

A parametric cmpariosn of etch rate and etch selectivity has been performed for GaN, InN and AIN etched in chlorine- and boron halides-based Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) discharges. Chlorine-based chemistries produced controllable etch rates (50~150 nm/min) and maximum etch selectivities ~6 for InN over GaN and ~10 for InN over AlN. Maximum etch selectivities of ~100 for InN over GaN and InN over AlN were obtained in boron halides-based discharges and smooth etched surface morphologies were also achieved.