• 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.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.99-108
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• 2023

Currently, semiconductor manufacturing industry heavily relies on a wide range of high global warming potential (GWP) gases, particularly during etching and cleaning processes, and their use and relevant carbon emissions are subject to global rules and regulations for achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. To replace high GWP gases in near future, dry etching using alternative low GWP gases is thus being under intense investigations. In this review, we report a current status and recent progress of the relevant research activities on dry etching processes using a low GWP gas. First, we review the concept of GWP itself and then introduce the difference between high and low GWP gases. Although most of the studies have concentrated on potentially replaceable additive gases such as C₄F₈, an ultimate solution with a lower GWP for main etching gases including CF₄ should be developed; therefore, we provide our own perspective in this regard. Finally, we summarize the advanced dry etch process research with low GWP gases and list up several issues to be considered in future research.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.113-118
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• 2002

We developed engineering methods to control gas flow in a plasma reactor in order to achieve good etch depth uniformity for large area GaAs etching. Finite difference numerical method was found quite useful for simulation of gas flow distribution in the reactor for dry etching of GaAs. The experimental results in $BCl_3/N_2/SF_6/He$ ICP plasmas confirmed that the simulated data fitted very well with real data. It is noticed that a focus ring could help improve both gas flow and etch uniformity for 150 mm diameter GaAs plasma etch processing. The simulation results showed that optimization of clamp configuration could decrease gas flow uniformity as low as $\pm$ 1.5% on an 100 mm(4 inch) GaAs wafer and $\pm$ 3% for a 150 m(6 inch) wafer with the fixed reactor and electrode, respectively. Comparison between simulated gas flow uniformity and real etch depth distribution data concluded that control of gas flow distribution in the chamber would be significantly important in order or achieve excellent dry etch uniformity of large area GaAs wafers.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.59-59
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• 1999

In this study, planer inductively coupled $Cl_2$ based plasmas were used to etch InGaN and the effects of plasma conditions on the InGaN etch properties have been characterized using quadrupole mass spectrometry(QMS) and optical emission spectroscopy(OES). As process conditions used to study the effects of plasma characteristics on the InGaN etch properties, $Cl_2$ was used as the main etch gas and $CHF_3,{\;}CH_4$, and Ar were used as additive gases. Operational pressure was varied from SmTorr to 3OmTorr, inductive power and bias voltage were varied from 400W to 800W and -50V to -250V, respectively while the substrate temperature was fixed at 50 centigrade. For the $Cl_2$ plasmas, selective etching of GaN to InGaN was obtained regardless of plasma conditions. The small addition of $CHF_3$ or Ar to $Cl_2$ and the decrease of pressure generally increased InGaN etch rates. The selective etching of InGaN to GaN could be obtained by the reduction of pressure to l5mTorr in $CI_2/IO%CHF_3{\;}or{\;}CI_2/IO%Ar$ plasma. The enhancement of InGaN etch rates was related to the ion bombardment for $CI_2/Ar$ plasmas and the formation of $CH_x$ radicals for $CI_2/CHF_3(CH_4)$ plasmas.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2009.08a
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• pp.245-245
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• 2009

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.363-363
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• 2008

The development of dry etching process for sapphire wafer with plasma has been key issues for the opto-electric devices. The challenges are increasing control and obtaining low plasma induced-damage because an unwanted scattering of radiation is caused by the spatial disorder of pattern and variation of surface roughness. The plasma-induced damages during plasma etching process can be classified as impurity contamination of residual etch products or bonding disruption in lattice due to charged particle bombardment. Therefor, fine pattern technology with low damaged etching process and high etch rate are urgently needed. Until now, there are a lot of reports on the etching of sapphire wafer with using $Cl_2$/Ar, $BCl_3$/Ar, HBr/Ar and so on [1]. However, the etch behavior of sapphire wafer have investigated with variation of only one parameter while other parameters are fixed. In this study, we investigated the effect of pressure and other parameters on the etch rate and the selectivity. We selected $BCl_3$ as an etch ant because $BCl_3$ plasmas are widely used in etching process of oxide materials. In plasma, the $BCl_3$ molecule can be dissociated into B radical, $B^+$ ion, Cl radical and $Cl^+$ ion. However, the $BCl_3$ molecule can be dissociated into B radical or $B^+$ ion easier than Cl radical or $Cl^+$ ion. First, we evaluated the etch behaviors of sapphire wafer in $BCl_3$/additive gases (Ar, $N_2,Cl_2$) gases. The behavior of etch rate of sapphire substrate was monitored as a function of additive gas ratio to $BCl_3$ based plasma, total flow rate, r.f. power, d.c. bias under different pressures of 5 mTorr, 10 mTorr, 20 mTorr and 30 mTorr. The etch rates of sapphire wafer, $SiO_2$ and PR were measured with using alpha step surface profiler. In order to understand the changes of radicals, volume density of Cl, B radical and BCl molecule were investigated with optical emission spectroscopy (OES). The chemical states of $Al_2O_3$ thin films were studied with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) and depth profile anlysis of auger electron spectroscopy (AES). The enhancement of sapphire substrate can be explained by the reactive ion etching mechanism with the competition of the formation of volatile $AlCl_3$, $Al_2Cl_6$ or $BOCl_3$ and the sputter effect by energetic ions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.174-174
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• 2010

In this article, the dry etching mechanism of ZnO thin films in $N_2/Cl_2$/Ar gas chemistry was investigated. The ZnO thin films were deposited on Si substrate using Atomic layer deposition. The etching experiments were performed by inductively coupled plasma system. The maximum etch rate was104.5 nm/min and the highest selectivity of ZnO over $SiO_2$ was 3.3. Etching rate was measured by surface profiler. And the chemical reaction on the surface of the etched ZnO thin films was investigated by x-ray photo electrons pectroscopy. As a result of XPS, $Zn2p_{3/2}$ peak shifted toward a higher binding energy and the O-O and N-O bond were obtained from the sample of ZnO thin film which after plasma treatment.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.25 no.9
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• pp.681-685
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• 2012

We investigated the dry etching characteristics of TiN in $TiN/Al_2O_3$ gate stack using a inductively coupled plasma system. TiN thin film is etched by BCl3/He plasma. The etching parameters are the gas mixing ratio, the RF power, the DC-bias voltages and process pressures. The highest etch rate is in $BCl_3/He$ (25%:75%) plasma. The selectivity of TiN thin film to $Al_2O_3$ is pretty similar with $BCl_3/He$ plasma. The chemical reactions of the etched TiN thin films are investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The intensities of the Ti 2p and the N 1s peaks are modified by $BCl_3$ plasma. Intensity and binding energy of Ti and N could be changed due to a chemical reaction on the surface of TiN thin films. Also we investigated that the non-volatile byproducts such as $TiCl_x$ formed by chemical reaction with Cl radicals on the surface of TiN thin films.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1997.11a
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• pp.279-281
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• 1997

The properties of Platinum dry etching were investigated in MICP(Magnetized Inductively Coupled Plasma). The problem with Platinum etching is the redeposition of sputtered Platinum on the sidewall. Because of the redeposits on the sidewall, the etching of patterned Platinum structure produce feature sizes that exceed the original dimension of the PR size and the etch profile has needle-like shape.[1] Generally, $Cl_2$ plasma is used for the fence-free etching.[1][2][3] The main object of this study was to investigate a new process technology for the fence-free Pt etching. Platinum was etched with Ar plasma at the cryogenic temperature and with Ar/$SF_6$ plasma at room temperature. In cryogenic etching, the height of fence was reduced to 20% at $-190^{\circ}C$ compared with that of room temp., but the etch profile was not fence-free. In Ar/$SF_6$ Plasma, chemical reaction took part in etching process. The trend of properties of Ar/$SF_6$ Plasma etching is similar to that of $Cl_2$ Plasma etching. Fence-free etching was possible, but PR selectivity was very low. A new gas chemistry for fence-free Platinum etching was proposed in this study.

• Journal of Surface Science and 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.