Modeling of silicon carbide etching in a $NF_3/CH_4$ plasma using neural network

$NF_3/CH_4$ 플라즈마를 이용한 실리콘 카바이드 식각공정의 신경망 모델링

Silicon carbide (SiC) was etched in a $NF_3/CH_4$ inductively coupled plasma. The etch process was modeled by using a neural network called generalized regression neural network (GRNN). For modeling, the process was characterized by a $2^4$ full factorial experiment with one center point. To test model appropriateness, additional test data of 16 experiments were conducted. Particularly, the GRNN predictive capability was drastically improved by a genetic algorithm (GA). This was demonstrated by an improvement of more than 80% compared to a conventionally obtained model. Predicted model behaviors were highly consistent with actual measurements. From the optimized model, several plots were generated to examine etch rate variation under various plasma conditions. Unlike the typical behavior, the etch rate variation was quite different depending on the bias power Under lower bias powers, the source power effect was strongly dependent on induced dc bias. The etch rate was strongly correated to the do bias induced by the gas ratio. Particularly, the etch rate variation with the bias power at different gas ratio seemed to be limited by the etchant supply.