• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.268-272
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• 2004

Transparent materials such as fused silica are widely utilized in optical and optoelectronics field because of its outstanding properties, such as transparency in a wide wavelength range, strong damage resistance for laser irradiation, and high thermal and chemical stability. In this study, we made a few micro patterns on the surface of fused silica plate using laser induced wet etching. KrF excimer laser was used as a light source. There were no burrs and micro cracks on the etched surface of fused silica and the flatness of the etched surface was fairly good. We investigated the influence of etchant upon the etch rate and quality in laser induced wet etching. Pyrene-acetone solution and toluene were used as etchant. In the side of etch rate, toluene solution was better than pyrene-acetone solution. But we made in wider range of energy density using pyrene-acetone solution. But pyrene-acetone solution gave us wider window of energy density for successful micro patterning.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.10-14
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• 2015

This paper reports the results of a study on the optimization of the etching profile, which is an important factor in deep-reactive-ion etching (DRIE), i.e., dry etching. Dry etching is the key processing step necessary for the development of the Internet of Things (IoT) and various microelectromechanical sensors (MEMS). Large-area etching (open area > 20%) under a high-frequency (HF) condition with nonoptimized processing parameters results in damage to the etched sidewall. Therefore, in this study, optimization was performed under a low-frequency (LF) condition. The HF method, which is typically used for through-silicon via (TSV) technology, applies a high etch rate and cannot be easily adapted to processes sensitive to sidewall damage. The optimal etching profile was determined by controlling various parameters for the DRIE of a large Si wafer area (open area > 20%). The optimal processing condition was derived after establishing the correlations of etch rate, uniformity, and sidewall damage on a 6-in Si wafer to the parameters of coil power, run pressure, platen power for passivation etching, and $SF_6$ gas flow rate. The processing-parameter-dependent results of the experiments performed for optimization of the etching profile in terms of etch rate, uniformity, and sidewall damage in the case of large Si area etching can be summarized as follows. When LF is applied, the platen power, coil power, and $SF_6$ should be low, whereas the run pressure has little effect on the etching performance. Under the optimal LF condition of 380 Hz, the platen power, coil power, and $SF_6$ were set at 115W, 3500W, and 700 sccm, respectively. In addition, the aforementioned standard recipe was applied as follows: run pressure of 4 Pa, $C_4F_8$ content of 400 sccm, and a gas exchange interval of $SF_6/C_4F_8=2s/3s$.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.24-28
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• 2007

The etching of zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films has been studied using a high density plasma in a $Cl_2/Ar$ gas. The etch characteristics of ZnO thin films were systematically investigated on varying $Cl_2$ concentration, coil rf power, dc-bias voltage, and gas pressure. With increasing $Cl_2$ concentration, the etch rate of ZnO thin film increased, the redeposition around the etched patterns decreased but the sidewall slope of the etched patterns slanted. As the coil rf power and dc-bias voltage increased, the etch rates of ZnO thin films increased and etch profiles of ZnO thin films were improved. With increasing gas pressure, the etch rate of ZnO thin films slightly increased but little change in etch profile was observed. Based on these results, the optimal etching conditions of ZnO thin film were selected. Finally, the etching of ZnO thin films with a high degree of anisotropy of approximately $75^{\circ}{\sim}80^{\circ}$ without the redepositions and residues was successfully achieved at the etching conditions of 20% $Cl_2$ concentration, coil rf power of 1000 W, dc-bias voltage of 400 V, and gas pressure of 5 mTorr.

• 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.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.75-82
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• 2017

High efficiency thin film solar cells require an absorber layer with high absorption and low defect, a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) film with high transmittance of over 80% and a high conductivity. Furthermore, light can be captured through the glass substrate and sent to the light absorbing layer to improve the efficiency. In this paper, morphology formation on the surface of glass substrate was investigated by using HF, mainly classified as random etching and periodic etching. We discussed about the etch mechanism, etch rate and hard mask materials, and periodic light trapping structure.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.46.5-46
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• 2002

As device dimension shrinks down to sub 100nm, it is increasingly important to monitor plasma states. Plasma etching is a key means to fine patterning of thin films. Many parameters are involved in etching and each parameter has different impact on process performances, including etch rate and profile. The uniformity of etch responses should be maintained high to improve device yield and throughput. The uniformity can be measured on any etch response. The most difficulty arises when attempting to characterize etched profile. Conventionally, the profile has been estimated by measuring the slope or angle of etched pattern. One critical drawback in this measurement is that this is unable to cap...

• Proceedings of the International Microelectronics And Packaging Society Conference
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.87-96
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• 2000

The properties of polyimide for interlayer dielectric applications are investigated during plasma etching of aluminum on it. Chlorine-based plasma generally used for aluminum etching results in an increase in the (dielectric constant of polyimide, while $SF_6$ plasma exhibits a high polyimide etch rate and a reducing effect of the dielectric constant. The leakage current of polyimide is significantly suppressed after plasma exposure. An optimal combination of Al etch with $Cl_6$ plasma and polyimide etch with $SF_6$ plasma is expected to be a good tool for realizing multilevel metallization structures.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.45-50
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• 2022

The etching with high selectivity of silicon dioxide over silicon nitride is essential in semiconductor fabrication, and gas phase etch (GPE) can increase the competitiveness of the selective dielectric etch. In this work, GPE of plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposited SiO₂ was performed, and the effects of process parameters, such as temperature, partial pressure ratio, and gas supply cycle, are investigated in terms of etch rate and within wafer uniformity. Employing multiple regression analysis, the importance of each parameter elements is analyzed.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.196-201
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• 2014

We investigated defects and surface polarity in AlN and GaN by using wet chemical etching. Therefore, the effectiveness and reliability of estimating the single crystals by defect selective etching in NaOH/KOH eutectic alloy have been successfully demonstrated. High-quality AlN and GaN single crystals were etched in molten NaOH/KOH eutectic alloy. The etching characteristics and surface morphologies were carried out by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and atomic force microscope (AFM). The etch rates of AlN and GaN surface were calculated by etching depth as a function of etching time. As a result, two-types of etch pits with different sizes were revealed on AlN and GaN surface, respectively. Etching produced hexagonal pits on the metal-face (Al, Ga) (0001) plane, while hexagonal hillocks formed on the N-face. On etching rate calibration, it was found that N-face had approximately 109 and 15 times higher etch rate than the metal-face of AlN and GaN, respectively. The size of etch pits increased with an increase of the etching time and they tend to merge together with a neighbouring etch pits. Also, the chemical mechanism of each etching process was discussed. It was found that hydroxide ion ($OH^-$) and the dangling bond of nitrogen play an important role in the selective etching of the metal-face and N-face.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.169-173
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• 2008

Characteristics of etching and induced surface morphology variation by wet-etching of n-type GaN were investigated using phosphoric acidic solutions. Generally, the etch-rate was increased as the temperature of the etch solutions was increased, and the highest etch rate of about $300{\AA}/min$ was achieved at the temperature of $180^{\circ}C$. The morphology variation of the etched surface was observed by optical microscopy and atomic force microscopy. Initially, high density of hexagonal holes or pits were formed on the etched surface at the time of 40 min with the bimodal size of $20{\mu}m$ or $5{\mu}m$, respectively. However, as the etching time was increased further, the lateral size of the hexagonal holes or pits was increased, and finally, joined and merged together at the time of 100 min. This means that the etching of n-type GaN by phosphoric acidic solutions proceeded through the lateral widening and the merging of initial holes and pits.