• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.287-292
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• 1997

This study was tried to form the silica waveguide using high density plasma. Plasma characteristics have been investigated as a function of etch parameters using a single Langmuir probe and optical emission spectroscopy(OES). As etch parameters, $CF_4/CHF_3$ ratio, bias power, and source power were chosen as main variables. The oxide etch characteristics of inductively coupled plasma(ICP) dry etcher such as the etch rate, etch profile, and surface roughness were investigated s a function of etch parameters. On the basis of these results, the core pattern of the wave guide composed of $SiO_2-P_2O_5$ was formed. It was confirmed that the etch rate of $SiO_2-P_2O_5$ core layer was 380 nm/min and the aluminum selectivity to oxide, that is, mask layer was approximately 30:1. The SEM images showed vertical etched profiles and minimal loss of pattern width.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.132-132
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• 2010

In the nano-scale Si processing, patterning processes based on multilevel resist structures becoming more critical due to continuously decreasing resist thickness and feature size. In particular, highly selective etching of the first dielectric layer with resist patterns are great importance. In this work, process window for the infinitely high etch selectivity of silicon oxynitride (SiON) layers and silicon nitride (Si3N4) with EUV resist was investigated during etching of SiON/EUV resist and Si3N4/EUV resist in a CH2F2/N2/Ar dual-frequency superimposed capacitive coupled plasma (DFS-CCP) by varying the process parameters, such as the CH2F2 and N2 flow ratio and low-frequency source power (PLF). It was found that the CH2F2/N2 flow ratio was found to play a critical role in determining the process window for ultra high etch selectivity, due to the differences in change of the degree of polymerization on SiON, Si3N4, and EUV resist. Control of N2 flow ratio gave the possibility of obtaining the ultra high etch selectivity by keeping the steady-state hydrofluorocarbon layer thickness thin on the SiON and Si3N4 surface due to effective formation of HCN etch by-products and, in turn, in continuous SiON and Si3N4 etching, while the hydrofluorocarbon layer is deposited on the EUV resist surface.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.322-326
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• 2011

Etch process of silicon dioxide layer by using capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) is currently being used to manufacture semiconductor devices with nano-scale feature size below 50 nm. In typical CCP plasma etcher system, plasmas are generated by applying the RF power on upper electrode and ion bombardment energy is controlled by applying RF power to the bottom electrode with the Si wafer. In this case, however, etch results often drift due to heating of the electrode during etching process. Therefore, controlling the temperature of the upper electrode is required to obtain improvement of etch repeatability. In this work, we report repeatability improvement during the silicon dioxide etching under extreme process conditions with very high RF power and close gap between upper and bottom electrodes. Under this severe etch condition, it is difficult to obtain reproducible oxide etch results due to drifts in etch rate, critical dimension, profile, and selectivity caused by unexpected problems in the upper electrode. It was found that reproducible etch results of silicon dioxide layer could be obtained by controlling temperature of the upper electrode. Methods of controlling the upper electrode and the correlation with etch repeatability will be discussed in detail.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.171-174
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• 2002

The barium strontium titannate (BST) thin films were etched in $CF_{4}/Ar$ inductively coupled plasma (ICP). The high etch rate obtained at a $CF_{4}(20%)/Ar(80%)$ and the etch rate in pure argon was twice higher than that in pure $CF_{4}$. This indicated that BST etching is sputter dominant process. It is impossible to avoid plasma-induced damages by the energetic particles in the plasma and the nonvolatile etch products. The plasma damages were evaluated in terms of leakage current density, residues on the etched sample, and the changes of roughness. After the BST thin films exposed in the plasma, the leakage current density and roughness increases. In addition, there are appeared a nonvolatile etch byproductsand from the result of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). After annealing at ${600^{\circ}C}$ for 10 min in $O_{2}$ ambient, the increased leakage current density, roughness and nonvolatile etch byproducts reduced. From the this results, the plasma induced damage recovered by annealing process owing to the relaxation of lattice mismatches by Ar ions and the desorption of metal fluorides in high temperature.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.344-349
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• 2006

A sublimation epitaxial method, referred to as the Closed Space Technique (CST) was adopted to produce thick SiC epitaxial layers for power device applications. We aimed to systematically investigate the dependence of SiC epilayer quality and growth rate during the sublimation growth using the CST method on various process parameters such as the growth temperature and working pressure. The etched surface of a SiC epitaxial layer grown with low growth rate $(30{\mu}m/h)$ exhibited low etch pit density (EPD) of ${\sim}2000/cm^2$ and a low micropipe density (MPD) of $2/cm^2$. The etched surface of a SiC epitaxial layer grown with high growth rate (above $100{\mu}m/h$) contained a high EPD of ${\sim}3500/cm^2$ and a high MPD of ${\sim}500/cm^2$, which indicates that high growth rate aids the formation of dislocations and micropipes in the epitaxial layer. We also investigated the Schottky barrier diode (SBD) characteristics including a carrier density and depletion layer for Ni/SiC structure and finally proposed a MESFET device fabricated by using selective epilayer process.

• KIEE International Transactions on Electrophysics and Applications
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• v.3C no.1
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• pp.28-32
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• 2003

In this paper, we have studied the in-situ end point detection (EPD) for direct chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) of shallow trench isolation (STI) structures without the reverse moat etch process. In this case, we applied a high selectivity $1n (HSS) that improves the silicon oxide removal rate and maximizes oxide to nitride selectivity Quite reproducible EPD results were obtained, and the wafer-to-wafer thickness variation was significantly reduced compared with the conventional predetermined polishing time method without EPD. Therefore, it is possible to achieve a global planarization without the complicated reverse moat etch process. As a result, the STI-CMP process can be simplified and improved using the new EPD method.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.309-314
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• 1999

The magnetized helical resonator plasma etcher has been built. Electron density and temperature were measured as functions of rf source power, axial magnetic field, and pressure. The results show electron density increases as the magnetic field increases and reached $2\times1012cm^{-3}$,/TEX>. The oxide etch rate and selectivity to polysilicon were investigated as the above mentioned conditions and self-bias voltage. We can obtain the much improved oxide etch selectivity to polysilicon (60 : 1) by applying the external axial weak magnetic field in magnetized helical resonator plasma etcher.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.25.1-28
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• 2000

In this study, $Y_2O_3$ thin films were etched with inductively coupled plasma (ICP). The etch rate of $Y_2O_3$ , and the selectivity of $Y_2O_3$ to YMnO$_3$were investigated by varying $Cl_2$/($Cl_2$+Ar) gas mixing ratio. The maximum etch rate of $Y_2O_3$ , and the selectivity of $Y_2O_3$ to YMnO$_3$ were 302/min, and 2.4 at $Cl_2$/($Cl_2$+Ar) gas mixing ratio of 0.2 repetitively. In x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis, $Y_2O_3$ thin film was dominantly etched by Ar ion bombardment, and was assisted by chemical reaction of Cl radical. These results were confirmed by secondary ion mass spectroscopy(SIMS) analysis. YCl, and $YC_3$ existed at 126.03 a.m.u, and 192.3 a.m.u, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.41-45
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• 1984

The production of high-quality epitaxial layers almost always involves an etching step of silicon substrates with HCl gas prior to epitaxy, In this work, an investigation has been made on the etch rate and the etch-pit formation as a function of HCl gas concentration and etch temperature at atmospheric pressure (1 atm.) and reduced pressure (0.1 atom.). As a result, it is found that the etch rate is proportional to the square of the HCI gas concentration (XHC12) and the apparent ativation energy is between 0 and 111 Kcal/mole for both ammospheric and reduced pressure operation. From these results, it is expected that the HCI etching of silicon in reduced pressure operation proceeds, as in atmospheric operation, via the reaction ; Si + 2HCl ↔ SiCl2 + H2.