• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.19 no.8
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• pp.421-426
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• 2009

We report on the capacitively coupled O2 plasma etching of PMMA and polycarbonate (PC) with a diffusion pump. Plasma process variables were process pressure and CCP power at 5 sccm $O_2$ gas flow rate. Characterization was done in order to analyze etch rate, etch selectivity, surface roughness, and morphology using stylus surface profilometry and scanning electron microscopy. Self bias decreased with increase of process pressure in the range of 25$\sim$180 mTorr. We found an important result for optimum pressure for the highest etch rate of PMMA and PC, which was 60 mTorr. PMMA and PC had etch rates of 0.46 and 0.28 ${\mu}m$/min under pressure conditions, respectively. More specifically, etch rates of the materials increased when the pressure changed from 25 mTorr to 60 mTorr. However, they reduced when the pressure increased further after 60 mTorr. RMS roughnesses of the etched surfaces were in the range of 2.2$\sim$2.9 nm. Etch selectivity of PMMA to a photoresist was $\sim$1.5:1 and that of PC was $\sim$0.9:1. Etch rate constant was about 0.04 ${\mu}m$/minW and 0.02 ${\mu}m$/minW for PMMA and PC, respectively, with the CCP power change at 5 sccm $O_2$ and 40 mTorr process pressure. PC had more erosion on the etched sidewall than PMMA did. The OES data showed that the intensity of the oxygen atomic peak (777.196 nm) proportionally increased with the CCP power.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.34-40
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• 1985

An investigation has been made on the growth phenomena of epitaxial layer and polysilicon from SiH2 Cl2 in H2 and the etch phenomena of them from HCI in H2, at the system pressures of 1.0 atm (atmospheric process) and 0.1 attn (reduced pressure process). From the experimental equations for the growth rates and etch rates. the relevant process conditions for the selective epitaxy are predicted for the case of using mixtures of SiH2Cl2 and HCI in H2. As a result, it is found that selective epitaxial growth region exists in the concentration range investigated for the reduced pressure process but it does not for the atmospheric Process. This is due to the differences in the growth rates and etch rates at atmospheric and reduced pressure.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.523-523
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• 2012

As the wafer geometric requirements continuously complicated and minutes in tens of nanometers, the expectation of real-time add-on sensors for in-situ plasma process monitoring is rapidly increasing. Various industry applications, utilizing plasma impedance monitor (PIM) and optical emission spectroscopy (OES), on etch end point detection, etch chemistry investigation, health monitoring, fault detection and classification, and advanced process control are good examples. However, process monitoring in semiconductor manufacturing industry requires non-invasiveness. The hypothesis behind the optical monitoring of plasma induced ion current is for the monitoring of plasma induced charging damage in non-invasive optical way. In plasma dielectric via etching, the bombardment of reactive ions on exposed conductor patterns may induce electrical current. Induced electrical charge can further flow down to device level, and accumulated charges in the consecutive plasma processes during back-end metallization can create plasma induced charging damage to shift the threshold voltage of device. As a preliminary research for the hypothesis, we performed two phases experiment to measure the plasma induced current in etch environmental condition. We fabricated electrical test circuits to convert induced current to flickering frequency of LED output, and the flickering frequency was measured by high speed optical plasma monitoring system (OPMS) in 10 kHz. Current-frequency calibration was done in offline by applying stepwise current increase while LED flickering was measured. Once the performance of the test circuits was evaluated, a metal pad for collecting ion bombardment during plasma etch condition was placed inside etch chamber, and the LED output frequency was measured in real-time. It was successful to acquire high speed optical emission data acquisition in 10 kHz. Offline measurement with the test circuitry was satisfactory, and we are continuously investigating the potential of real-time in-situ plasma induce current measurement via OPMS.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.448-448
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• 2010

Magnetic random access memory (MRAM) has made a prominent progress in memory performance and has brought a bright prospect for the next generation nonvolatile memory technologies due to its excellent advantages. Dry etching process of magnetic thin films is one of the important issues for the magnetic devices such as magnetic tunneling junctions (MTJs) based MRAM. CoFeB is a well-known soft ferromagnetic material, of particular interest for magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) and other devices based on tunneling magneto-resistance (TMR), such as spin-transfer-torque MRAM. One particular example is the CoFeB - MgO - CoFeB system, which has already been integrated in MRAM. In all of these applications, knowledge of control over the etching properties of CoFeB is crucial. Recently, transferring the pattern by using milling is a commonly used, although the redeposition of back-sputtered etch products on the sidewalls and the low etch rate of this method are main disadvantages. So the other method which has reported about much higher etch rates of >$50{\AA}/s$ for magnetic multi-layer structures using $Cl_2$/Ar plasmas is proposed. However, the chlorinated etch residues on the sidewalls of the etched features tend to severely corrode the magnetic material. Besides avoiding corrosion, during etching facets format the sidewalls of the mask due to physical sputtering of the mask material. Therefore, in this work, magnetic material such as CoFeB was etched in an ICP etching system using the gases which can be expected to form volatile metallo-organic compounds. As the gases, carbon monoxide (CO) and ammonia ($NH_3$) were used as etching gases to form carbonyl volatiles, and the etched features of CoFeB thin films under by Ta masking material were observed with electron microscopy to confirm etched resolution. And the etch conditions such as bias power, gas combination flow, process pressure, and source power were varied to find out and control the properties of magnetic layer during the process.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.23 no.12
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• pp.924-928
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• 2010

In this study, $HfAlO_3$ thin films using gate insulator of MOSFET were etched in inductively coupled plasma. The etch characteristics of the $HfAlO_3$ thin films has been investigated by varying $O_2/BCl_3$/Ar gas mixing ratio, a RF power, a DC bias voltage and a process pressure. As the $O_2$ concentration increases further, $HfAlO_3$ was redeposited. As increasing RF power and DC bias voltage, etch rates of the $HfAlO_3$ thin films increased. Whereas, as decreasing of the process pressure, etch rates of the $HfAlO_3$ thin films increased. The chemical reaction on the surface of the etched the $HfAlO_3$ thin films was investigated with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). These peaks moved a binding energy. This chemical shift indicates that there are chemical reactions between the $HfAlO_3$ thin films and radicals and the resulting etch by-products remain on the surface.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2005.07a
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• pp.164-165
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• 2005

The dry etch characteristics of GaAs over both AlGaAs and InGaP in planar inductively coupled $BCl_3$-based plasmas(ICP) with additions of $SF_6$ or $CF_4$ were studied. The additions of flourine gases provided enhanced etch selectivities of GaAs/AlGaAs and GaAs/InGaP. The etch stop reaction involving formation of involatile $AlF_3$ and $InF_3$ (boiling points of etch products: $AlF_3\sim1300^{\circ}C$, $InF_3$ > $1200^{\circ}C$ at atmosphere) were found to be effective under high density inductively coupled plasma condition. Decrease of etch rates of all materials was probably due to strong increase of flourine atoms in the discharge, which blocked the surface of the material against chlorine neutral adsorption. The process parameters were ICP source power (0 - 500 W), RF chuck power (0 - 30 W) and variable gas composition. The process results were characterized in terms of etch rate, selectivities of GaAs over AlGaAs and InGaP, surface morphology, surface roughness and residues after etching.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.189-193
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• 2008

In this study, we carried out an investigation of the etching characteristics (etch rate, selectivity to $SiO_2$ and $HfO_2$) of TiN thin films in the $CH_4$/Ar inductively coupled plasma. The maximum etch rate of $274\;{\AA}/min$ for TiN thin films was obtained at $CH_4$(80%)/Ar(20%) gas mixing ratio. At the same time, the etch rate was measured as function of the etching parameters such as RF power, Bias power, and process pressure. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis showed an efficient destruction of the oxide bonds by the ion bombardment as well as showed an accumulation of low volatile reaction products on the etched surface. Based on these data, the ion-assisted chemical reaction was proposed as the main etch mechanism for the $CH_4$ containing plasmas.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.216-220
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• 2013

The etching characteristics of indium zinc oxide (IZO) in $Cl_2/Ar$ plasma were investigated, including the etch rate and selectivity of IZO. The IZO etch rate showed non-monotonic behavior with increasing $Cl_2$ fraction in the $Cl_2/Ar$ plasma, and with increasing source power, bias power, and process pressure. In the $Cl_2/Ar$ (75:25%) gas mixture, a maximum IZO etch rate of 87.6 nm/min and etch selectivity of 1.09 for IZO to $SiO_2$ were obtained. Owing to the relatively low volatility of the by-products formation, ion bombardment was required, in addition to physical sputtering, to obtain high IZO etch rates. The chemical state of the etched surfaces was investigated with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. These data suggested that the IZO etch mechanism was ion-enhanced chemical etching.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2003.07a
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• pp.75-79
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• 2003

We studied InP etch results in high density planar inductively coupled $BCl_3$ and $BCl_3$/Ar plasmas. The investigated process parameters were ICP source power, RIE chuck power, chamber pressure and $BCl_3$/Ar gas composition. It was found that increase of ICP source power and RIE chuck power raised etch rate of InP, while that of chamber pressure decreased etch rate. Etched InP surface was clean and smooth (RMS roughness < 2 nm) with a moderate etch rate ($300\;{\sim}\;500\;{\AA}/min$) after the planar $BCl_3/Ar$ ICP etching. It may make it possible to open a new regime of InP etching with $CH_4/H_2$ - free plasma chemistry. Some amount of Ar addition (< 50%) also improved etch rates of InP, while too much Ar addition reduced etch rates of InP.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.223-227
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• 2001

In this paper, the authors present the fabrication of high-yield Si thin-membranes by electrochemical etch-stop in tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide (TMAH): isopropyl alcohol (IPA):pyrazine solutions. The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of n- and p-type Si in TMAH:IPA;pyrazine solutions were analysed, repsectively. Open circuit potential (OCP)and passivation potential (PP) of n- and p-type Si, respectively, were obtained and applied potential was selected between n- and p-type Si PPs. The electrochemical etch-stop method was applied to the fabrication of 801 micro-membranes with 20.0 $\mu\textrm{m}$ thickness on a 5" Si wafer. The average thickness of fabricated 801 micro-membranes on one wafer 20.03$\mu\textrm{m}$ and the standard deviation was ${\pm}$0.26$\mu\textrm{m}$. The Si surface of the etch-stopped micro-membranes was extremely flat with no noticeable taper or nonuniformity. The results indicate that use of the electrochemical etch-stop method for the etching of Si in TMAH:IPA;pyrazine solutions provides a powerful and versatile alternative process for fabricating high-yield Si micro-membranes.