• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.364-371
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• 1997

Silicon trench etching has been carried out using a magnetically enhanced reactive ion etching system in HBr plasma containing He-$O_2$, $CF_4$. The changes of etch rate and etch profile, the degree of residue formation, and the change of surface chemical state were investigated as a function of additive gas flow rate. A severe lateral etching was observed when pure HBr plasma was used to etch the silicon, resulted in a pot shaped trench. When He-$O_2$, $SiF_4$ additives were added to HBr plasma, the lateral etching was almost eliminated and a better trench etch profile was obtained. The surface etched in HBr/He-$O_2/SiF_4$ plasma showed relatively low contamination and residue elements compared to the surface etched in HBr/He-$O-2/CF_4$plasma. In addition, the etching characteristics including low residue formation and chemically clean etched surface were obtained by using HBr containing He-$O_2$ or $SiF_4$ additive gases instead of $CF_4$ gas, which were confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM).

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.8 no.7
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• pp.634-640
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• 1998

A well- shaped trench was investigated in view of the defect distribution along trench sidewall and bottom using high resolution transmission electron microscopy. The trench was formed by HBr plasma and additive gases in magnetically enhanced reactive ion etching system. Adding $0_2$ and other additive gases into HBr plasma makes it possible to eliminate sidewall undercut and lower surface roughness by forming the passivation layer of lateral etching, resulted in the well filled trench with oxide and polysilicon by subsequent deposition. The passivation layer of lateral etching was mainly composed of $SiO_xF_y$ $SiO_xBr_y$ confirmed by chemical analysis. It also affects the generation and distribution of lattice defects. Most of etch induced defects were found in the edge region of the trench bottom within the depth of 10$\AA$. They are generally decreased with the thickness of residue layer and almost disappeared below the uni¬formly thick residue layer. While the formation of crystalline defects in silicon substrate mainly depends on the incident angle and energy of etch species, the region of surface defects on the thickness of residue layer formed during trench etching.