Journal ArticleDOI
Remote plasma etching of silicon nitride and silicon dioxide using NF3/O2 gas mixtures
TLDR
In this article, the etch rate of silicon nitride (Si3N4) and silicon dioxide (SiO2) in the afterglow of NF3 and NF3/O2 microwave discharges was characterized.Abstract:
The etching of silicon nitride (Si3N4) and silicon dioxide (SiO2) in the afterglow of NF3 and NF3/O2 microwave discharges has been characterized. The etch rates of both materials increase approximately linearly with the flow of NF3 due to the increased availability of F atoms. The etch rate of Si3N4 is enhanced significantly upon O2 injection into the NF3 discharge for O2/NF3 ratios of 0.3 and higher, whereas the SiO2 etch rate is less influenced for the same flow ratios. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of processed Si3N4 samples shows that the fluorine content of the reactive layer, which forms on the Si3N4 surface during etching, decreases with the flow of O2, and instead oxidation and nitrogen depletion of the surface occur. The oxidation of the reactive layer follows the same dependence on the flow of O2 as the etch rate. Argon actinometry and quadrupole mass spectrometry are used to identify reactive species in the etching of both materials. The atomic fluorine density decreases due to dilution as O...read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Investigations of surface reactions during C2F6 plasma etching of SiO2 with equipment and feature scale models
Da Zhang,Mark J. Kushner +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, a surface reaction mechanism for fluorocarbon plasma etching of SiO2 has been developed, which describes the polymerization process as resulting from neutral sticking, ion sputtering, F atom etching, and low-energy ion assisted deposition.
Patent
Methods for etching an etching stop layer utilizing a cyclical etching process
TL;DR: In this article, a method for etching an etching stop layer using a cyclical etching process is described. But the method is not suitable for the case of silicon nitride, and the method requires the use of at least ammonium gas and nitrogen trifluoride.
Journal ArticleDOI
Highly selective etching of silicon nitride over silicon and silicon dioxide
TL;DR: In this paper, a highly selective dry etching process for the removal of silicon nitride (Si3N4) layers from silicon and silicon dioxide (SiO2) was described and its mechanism examined.
Journal ArticleDOI
Surface kinetics and plasma equipment model for Si etching by fluorocarbon plasmas
Da Zhang,Mark J. Kushner +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the surface kinetics model (SKM) was developed as a module in the two-dimensional hybrid plasma equipment model (HPEM) with the goal of combining plasma chemistry and surface chemistry in a self-consistent fashion.
Journal ArticleDOI
Integrated feature scale modeling of plasma processing of porous and solid SiO2. I. Fluorocarbon etching
Arvind Sankaran,Mark J. Kushner +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the Monte Carlo Feature Profile Model was modified to address these two-phase systems and was validated by comparison to experiments by others for etching of porous silicon-dioxide (PS) and solid SiO2 (SS).
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Optical emission spectroscopy of reactive plasmas: A method for correlating emission intensities to reactive particle density
J. W. Coburn,M. Chen +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, a small concentration of suitably chosen noble gas to a reactive plasma is shown to permit the determination of the functional dependence of reactive particle density on plasma parameters, and examples illustrating the simplicity of this method are presented using F atomic emission from plasma-etching discharges and a comparison is made to available data in the literature.
Journal ArticleDOI
Plasma etching of Si and SiO2—The effect of oxygen additions to CF4 plasmas
TL;DR: In this article, the plasma etching of silicon and silicon dioxide in CF4-O2 mixtures has been studied as a function of feed-gas composition in a 13.56MHz plasmagenerated in a radial flow reactor at 200 W and 0.35 Torr.
Journal ArticleDOI
The reaction of fluorine atoms with silicon
TL;DR: In this paper, a detailed model of silicon gasification is presented which accounts for the low atomic fluorine reaction probability (0.00168 at room temperature) and formation of SiF2 as a direct product.
Journal ArticleDOI
Electron Interactions with CF4
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors assess and synthesize the available information on the cross sections and/or the rate coefficients for collisional interactions of carbon tetrafluoride (CF4) with electrons.
Journal ArticleDOI
Spectroscopic diagnostics of CF4‐O2 plasmas during Si and SiO2 etching processes
TL;DR: In this paper, the effect of the oxygen addition to the gas feed on the electron densities of the plasma for a wide range of electron energies has been determined with this technique, as a function of oxygen content in the feed.