• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.97-100
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• 2018

$NF_3$ Plasma etching of silicon was conducted by injecting only $NF_3$ gas into reactive ion etching. $NF_3$ Plasma etching was done in intermediate pressure. Silicon etching by $NF_3$ plasma in reactive ion etching was diagnosed through residual gas analyzer and optical emission spectroscopy. In plasma etching, optical emission spectroscopy is generally used to know what kinds of species in plasma. Also, residual gas analyzer is mainly to know the byproducts of etching process. Through experiments, the results of optical emission spectroscopy during silicon etching by $NF_3$ plasma was analyzed with connecting the results of etch rate of silicon and residual gas analyzer. It was confirmed that $NF_3$ plasma etching of silicon in reactive ion etching accords with the characteristic of reactive ion etching.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.77-77
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• 2011

These days, a growing demand for memory device is filled up with the flash memory and the dynamic random access memory (DRAM). Although DRAM is a reasonable solution for current demand, the universal novel memory with high density, high speed and nonvolatility, needs to be developed. Among various new memories, the magnetic random access memory (MRAM) device is considered as one of good candidate memories because of excellent features including high density, high speed, low operating power and nonvolatility. The etching of MTJ stack which is composed of magnetic materials and insulator such as MgO is one of the vital process for MRAM. Recently, MgO has attracted great interest in the MTJ stack as tunneling barrier layer for its high tunneling magnetoresistance values. For the successful realization of high density MRAM, the etching process of MgO thin films should be investigated. Until now, there were some works devoted to the investigations on etch characteristics of MgO thin films. Initially, ion milling was applied to the etching of MgO thin films. However, ion milling has many disadvantages such as sidewall redeposition and etching damage. High density plasma etching containing the magnetically enhanced reactive ion etching and high density reactive ion etching have been employed for the improvement of etching process. In this work, inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching (ICPRIE) system was adopted for the improvement of etching process using MgO thin films and etching gas mixes of $CH_4$/Ar and $CH_4$/$O_2$/Ar have been employed. The etch rates are measured by a surface profilometer and etch profiles are observed using field emission scanning emission microscopy (FESEM). The effects of gas concentration and etch parameters such as coil rf power, dc-bias voltage to substrate, and gas pressure on etch characteristics will be systematically explored.

• Journal of the Speleological Society of Korea
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• no.78
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• pp.29-31
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• 2007

This paper is devoted to a study of the characterization of the plasma state. For the purpose of monitoring plasma condition, we experiment on reactive ion etching (RIE) process. Without actual etch process, generated oxygen plasma, measurement of plasma emission intensity. Changing plasma process parameters, oxygen flow, RF power and chamber pressure have controlled. Using the optical emission spectroscopy (OES), we conform to the unique oxygen wavelength (777nm), the most powerful intensity region of the designated range. Increase of RF power and chamber pressure, emission intensity is increased. oxygen flow is not affect to emission intensity.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.483-488
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• 2006

Etching process of PMMA (Polymethyl Methacrylate) on glass surface was investigated by dry etching technique using remote plasma. To determine the etching characteristics, the remote plasma etching was conducted for various process parameters such as plasma power, reaction gas and distance from plasma generation. As the distance from the plasma generation was increased, the etch rate of PMMA was linearly decreased by radical density in plasma. PMMA has removed by reactive radicals in the plasma. The etch rate increased with plasma power because of more reactive radicals. The etch rate and surface roughness of PMMA increased with $O_2$ concentration in the etchant.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.81-83
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• 2007

Etching of NiFe films covered with an organic photo-resist or Ti was successfully performed by an inductively coupled plasma-reactive ion etching (ICP-RIE) system using $CHF_3/O_2/NH_3$ discharges exchanging $CHF_3$ for $CH_4$ gas gradually. Experimental results showed that the organic photo-resist mask can be applied to the NiFe etching. In the case of the Ti metal mask, it was found that the etching-selectivity Ti against NiFe was significantly varied from 7.3 to ${\sim}0$ by changing $CHF_3/CH_4/O_2/NH_3$ to $CH_4/O_2/NH_3$ discharges used in the ICP-RIE system. These results show that the present RIE of NiFe was dominated by a chemical reaction rather than a physical sputtering.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.211-215
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• 2017

Reactive Ion Etching (RIE) and wet etching are employed in existing texturing processes to fabricate solar cells. Laser etching is used for particular purposes such as selective etching for grooves. However, such processes require a higher level of cost and longer processing time and those factors affect the unit cost of each process of fabricating solar cells. As a way to reduce the unit cost of this process of making solar cells, an atmospheric plasma source will be employed in this study for the texturing of crystalline silicon wafers. In this study, we produced the atmospheric plasma source and examined its basic properties. Then, using the prepared atmospheric plasma source, we performed the texturing process of crystalline silicon wafers. The results obtained from texturing processes employing the atmospheric plasma source and employing RIE were examined and compared with each other. The average reflectance of the specimens obtained from the atmospheric plasma texturing process was 7.88 %, while that of specimens obtained from the texturing process employing RIE was 8.04 %. Surface morphologies of textured wafers were examined and measured through Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and similar shapes of reactive ion etched wafers were found. The Power Conversion Efficiencies (PCE) of the solar cells manufactured through each process were 16.97 % (atmospheric plasma texturing) and 16.29 % (RIE texturing).

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.132-137
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• 2010

Plasma etching of $SiO_2$ contact holes was statistically analyzed by a fractional factorial experimental design. The analysis revealed the dependence of the etch rate and DC self-bias voltage on the input factors of the magnetically enhanced reactive ion etching reactor, including gas pressure, magnetic field, and the gas flow rates of $CHF_3$, $CF_4$, and Ar. Empirical models of the DC self-bias voltage and etch rate were obtained. The DC self-bias voltage was found to be determined mainly by the operating pressure and the magnetic field, and the etch rate was related mainly to the pressure and the flow rates of Ar and $CHF_3$.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 1992.05a
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• pp.32-32
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• 1992

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.1-5
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• 2009

This investigation is applied Taguchi method and the analysis of variance(ANOVA) to the reactive ion etching(RIE) characteristics of $SiO_2$ film coated on a wafer with Experimental Analysis and Optimization of $CF_4/O_2$ Plasma Etching Process mixture. Plans of experiments via nine experimental runs are based on the orthogonal arrays. A $L_9$ orthogonal array was selected with factors and three levels. The three factors included etching time, RF power, gas mixture ratio. The etching rate of the film were measured as a function of those factors. In this study, the etching thickness mean and uniformity of thickness of the RIE are adopted as the quality targets of the RIE etching process. The partial factorial design of the Taguchi method provides an economical and systematic method for determining the applicable process parameters. The RIE are found to be the most significant factors in both the thickness mean and the uniformity of thickness for a RIE etching process.

• Electrical & Electronic Materials
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.425-429
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• 1994

In this paper, we study on the plasma polymerized styrene as a negative electron-beam resist. Plasma polymerized thin film was prepared using an interelectrode inductively coupled gas-flow type reactor. We show that polymerization parameters of thin film affect sensitivity and etching resistance of the resist. Molecular weight distribution of plasma polymerized styrene is 1.41-3.93, and deposition rates of that are 32-383[.angs./min] with discharge power. Swelling and etching resistance becomes . more improved with increasing discharge power during plasma polymerization. Etch rate by RIE is higher than that by plasma etching.